Charity urges change to transport habits

Date: 6/10/2009

Friends of the Earth has suggested that few people would be willing to change their flying habits to reduce carbon emissions.

Neil Verlander from Friends of the Earth, suggested that the government should act to help people change their habits.

"We need to see the cost of flying more accurately reflect the impact that it has upon the environment, but also we need to see greater investment in things like fast rail travel because many of the destinations that people fly to actually can be gotten to by fast rail," he said.

Mr Verlander said he was not surprised that people purchase cheap flights and suggested the problem with such low costs is that they encourage people to fly using other eco-friendly transportation methods.

The environmental charity was responding to new research from Loughborough University showing that just 14 per cent of people planned to cut down the amount of flights they take over the next five years.

It was found that a £20 rise in flight prices would mean 42 per cent of people would fly less often.