News Desk
STOCKHOLM
Sweden wants travel companies to inform customers of the climate impact of long-haul trips when advertising or selling tickets, the government said Friday.
“The transport sector is the key in the climate transition … but it should also be easy for the individual to take responsibility,” Tomas Eneroth, Minister for Infrastructure, said in a statement.
“That’s why a climate declaration is a good way for consumers and companies to know what sort of climate impact your travels have,” Eneroth added.
A bill has yet to be proposed but the government commissioned a report on how companies could be mandated to declare the climate impact of long-haul trips by “bus, train, plane or ferry.”
The report, which will be completed by April 2020, will also look at how a climate declaration should be structured to allow easy comparison between different modes of transport in a way that is understandable to the consumer.
Parul Sharma, director of Greenpeace Sweden, welcomed the initiative.
“Informed consumers are incredibly important and I think many would be awestruck about how much of a climate impact, particularly flights, have,” Sharma said.
Choosing more climate friendly ways of getting around have become a hot topic in the country following climate activist Greta Thunberg’s insistence on trains-over-planes and debates over so called “flygskam,” a buzz word which translates to flight shame.
In September, Sweden’s largest airport operator Swedavia said that air passengers were down four percent in August compared to the same month a year before, in line with similar drops for previous months in 2019.
