More and more voices are being raised about the idea of ​​setting a limit on air travel per person

A document required for travel that determines the amount of such contamination to be carried by each person

Last year 2023 was a great year for the travel industry. during summer vacation period Tourism demand exceeded before the pandemic in many European countries, But while this is great news economically, it is a terrible revelation for the environment. represents the airline industry so much pollution Experts are studying the feasibility of creating a “carbon passport.”

A document required for travel that controls (and limits) the amount that each person can contaminate in this way.

Actual situation. According to Environmental Protection Agency data29% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 came from transportation including flying, trains and cars. And air travel alone accounts for about 2.5% of those emissions, a quarter of Global “Carbon Budget” for 2050., If we take into account that the amount of CO2 emitted by commercial aircraft worldwide between 2013 and 2018 32% increaseThe future does not promise anything good.

In fact, According to the Shame Plane website

By flying from Paris to Los Angeles you would already be emitting more greenhouse gases than one person is “allowed” to do in a year, In accordance with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, To achieve this, flight prices would have to increase by 1.4% every year, with the aim of discouraging travellers. The problem is that they are getting cheaper and cheaper.

The solution: a carbon passport. Faced with this situation, Australia-based tour operator Intrepid Travel, in collaboration with forecasting agency The Future Laboratory, Released a report detailing the future of sustainable travel And in which he presented a strategy that, if implemented, would greatly help reduce the aviation industry’s impact on the environment: a “carbon passport.”

This will be an annual carbon allowance which passengers cannot increase. i.e, A card where each person’s flights are recorded And what they contribute to the carbon footprint. If the limit is exceeded, the person will be barred from flying for a certain period. “This will force people to ration their carbon according to the global budget, which is 750 billion tonnes by 2050,” the report’s authors explain.

This is not a new thing. It is important to mention that at the moment this concept is completely hypothetical: there is no official announcement or project on the creation and introduction of a carbon passport. It is also unclear how such a system would measure kilometers traveled or which jurisdiction would be able to implement it. But the idea of ​​personal carbon allowances is not new. A similar concept (called “individual carbon trading”) This was debated in the British Parliament in 2008

, The project went nowhere due to its complexity and the potential for public resistance.

Leaning, Along the same lines, various laws and restrictions have been implemented across the planet in recent years, suggesting that our travel habits are about to change forever. In Belgium since April last year, passengers on short-haul flights and older aircraft are subject to higher tax burden Encouraging other travel options. Less than two months later, France Short haul domestic flights banned In which the same train journey can be done in two and a half hours or less. And Spain is also planning something similar (We have analyzed this in detail at Xataka,

Not only in air transportation, but also in sea transportation, especially in the cruise industry. A field that pumps four times more sulfuric gases According to research by the European Federation of Transport and Environment, Europe’s total of 291 million cars in 2023 is expected to pollute the atmosphere. As a result, Amsterdam banned cruise ships from docking in the city center to reduce tourism and pollution, an initiative that was successful in other places such as Venice.

Leaning. Obviously, this new concept is unlikely to be well accepted by airlines or returning passengers. In fact, the travel industry considers this measure to be extreme. But according to Intrepid, it’s only a matter of time before “regenerative travel” explodes in the next few years. It is already being seen: traveler who They think twice whether their visit could have any definite impact

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Image: Unsplash

In Xataka 1% of air passengers spread as much pollution as the other 99%