Climate Action Week 2024 kicked off on Tuesday morning (Australia time) with a keynote address on The Future of Flight and International Travel by Professor Frauke Urban, Royal Institute of Technology KTH in Sweden. Now in its fourth year, Climate Action Week is an initiative of CANIE, the Climate Action Network for International Educators.
In her address, Professor Urban acknowledged that the simplest solution to reducing the climate impact of air travel is to travel less. However, in reality “flying will continue to be important in the future for connecting people and transporting goods”, she said.
That being the case, Professor Urban argued that “we need a whole systems transformation” to reduce the impact of air travel on the climate. This would need to involve: different fuels and different technologies; buy in by all stakeholders – airlines, aircraft manufacturers, fuel producers, airports, regulators and financers; at all levels – international, national, regional. And, importantly, customers who want to travel more sustainably (eg who want to buy flights using more sustainable aviation fuels).
Activities for the rest of Climate Action Week include sessions today on COP28 Reflections and COP29 Preparations and Empowering Green Advocates, as well as CANIE Chapter meetings tomorrow. More information is available here: https://canie.org/participate/climate-action-week-2024
CANIE is a grassroots initiative and registered non-profit formed by international education practitioners from around the world who see the need and the opportunity for the international education sector to step up and act on climate. CANIE’s vision is to strive for a carbon-neutral and climate-literate international education sector by 2030.
You can watch a replay of the full keynote address:
If you’re not already a member of CANIE, you can join here: canie.org/join
