Flying is not the 'ultimate evil' UK transport secretary

UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said flying should not cause feelings of guilt. Photo / Pexels

Taking a plane to a climate conference may seem like an obvious initiation for criticism but UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said it should not be treated as the "ultimate evil".

Shapp's comments addressed disapproval some delegates received about flying to the Cop26 summit when more sustainable transport options were available.

Day nine of Cop26 was focused on transport and Britain announced their plan to phase out petrol cars from 2030 and polluting heavy goods vehicles from 2040 to cut carbon emissions.

In addition, they revealed plans to build electric charging stations that would support low-carbon road transport.

However, Shapps told the Daily Telegraph that these green plans shouldn't stop people from travelling to see family, friends or for business.

"I believe, as transport secretary, that we can get to guilt-free travel in this country," he said.

Shapps said achieving carbon commitments would involve some changes to how citizens live but staying home out of guilt should not be one of them.

"It gets worse the further you travel, so flying is, of course, the ultimate evil, as it is presented and that is just not what we believe as the British government," he said.

Unsurprisingly, Greenpeace disagreed.

More than two dozen countries signed an aviation declaration to reduce emissions from plane travel to net-zero by 2050 and promote sustainable fuels. A commitment the environmental group described as "brazen greenwashing".

"They should be reducing flights and massively investing into rail and greener travel options," Greenpeace said.

According to new research, the British public also supports aviation reform in regards to limiting domestic flights.

Commissioned by climate charity Possible, the 2,000-person study found more than half (58 per cent) would support a tax increase on domestic flights that would be spent on funding greener alternatives.

A majority (54 per cent) also supported banning domestic flights if the journey could be reasonably made by train.

If such restrictions did come into play, Brits may not be the most impacted.

Analysing government data, Possible found 90 per cent of domestic flights were taken by 2 per cent of English fliers in 2019.