Tipping to Staying on the Ground: Internalized Knowledge of Climate Change Crucial for Transformed Air Travel Behavior

Abstract

Air travel accounts for a major share of individual greenhouse gas emissions, particularly for people in high-income countries. Until recently, few have reduced flying because of climate concerns, but currently, a movement for staying on the ground is rising. Sweden has been a focal point for this movement, particularly during 2018–2019, when a flight tax was introduced, and air travel reduction was intensely discussed in the media. We performed semi-structured interviews with Swedish residents, focusing primarily on individuals who have reduced flying because of its climate impact. We explore how such individual transformation of air travel behavior comes about, and the phases and components of this process. Applying a framework of sustainability transformation, we identify incentives and barriers in personal and political spheres. We show that internalized knowledge about climate change and the impact of air travel is crucial for instigating behavioral change. Awareness evokes negative emotions leading to a personal tipping point where a decision to reduce or quit flying is made. However, the process is often counteracted by both personal values and political structures promoting air travel. Even individuals with a strong drive to reduce flying feel trapped in social practices, norms and infrastructures. Hence, we argue that personal and political spheres interact complexly and to reduce flying at larger scales, interventions are needed across spheres, e.g., change of norms, effective policy instruments and better alternatives to air travel.

Potentials for reducing climate impact from tourism transport behavior

“…Thus, changing travel behaviour is part of the public discourse in Sweden. This means that readiness to change travel behaviour can be expected to be higher in this context, but also that respondents' replies might be more reliable due to awareness of the connection between air travel and climate impacts being high among Swedes (Jacobson et al, 2020).…”

“…With alternative modes of travel, people are not deprived of travel altogether but instead offered a slightly different experience (Wolrath S€ oderberg & Wormbs, 2019). Furthermore, Jacobson et al (2020) point out the importance of both changed societal norms and implementation of effective policy instruments as pivotal to achieving large-scale reductions in air travel.…”

“…G€ ossling & Buckley, 2016). Moreover, flying is strongly linked to the social practice of tourism (Jacobson et al, 2020) and transport choices are, in general, strongly habitual (Verplanken & Roy, 2016). Thus, the higher levels of readiness among younger and less experienced tourists may be due to these groups having not yet formed strong transport and tourism habits.…”

“…Buijtendijk & Eijgelaar, 2020;Liljestrand, 2018;Sullivan, 2020;Vidal, 2019). In Sweden, for example, the term flygskam ("flight shame"), describing the negative feelings associated with the climate impact from flying, was coined and then spread around the world (Jacobson et al, 2020;Wolrath S€ oderberg & Wormbs, 2019). This indicates that there may be a potential for shifting from predominant travel practices with high emissions towards alternatives with lower emissions.…”

20 years of Nordic climate change crisis and tourism research: a review and future research agenda

“…In addition to responding to the effects of the climate crisis, studies have been conducted on tourism's contribution to climate change both within the Nordic region (Adamiak et al, 2016;Gössling, 2013;Gössling & Hall, 2008;Larsson et al, 2018;Sharp et al, 2016), and internationally (Gössling et al, 2013). Nordic research also shares common ground with international approaches in the study of interventions by which tourism's emissions contribution could be decreased (Aall et al, 2016;Gössling, 2018;Gössling et al, 2009;Gössling et al, 2012;Gössling et al, 2015Gössling & Buckley, 2016;Scott et al, 2016a;Simonsen et al, 2019;Strandell & Hall, 2015) and attitudes towards long-distance travel and climate change (Higham & Cohen, 2011;Jacobson et al, 2020).…”