Flying in the face of climate change

Abstract

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management looks into the possibility of raising the awareness of Dutch citizens as policy measure to encourage travellers to travel in a more conscious and more climate-friendly manner. Scientific literature, however, shows contradictory results on the effectiveness of this measure. An ongoing academic discussion is present on the extent to which awareness about the consequences of behaviour results in a desirable change of that behaviour. This study applies structural equation modelling on Dutch Mobility Panel data to examine if and via which causal pathway of socio-psychological factors information and awareness about the relative impact of flying on climate change run to the intention to fly. We find that raising awareness of Dutch citizens about the relative impact of flying on climate change is not enough to change people’s intended flying behaviour. The current awareness only changes people’s attitudes and reasons used to justify their flying behaviour, not the intention to fly. Further research, however, is necessary to find out if raising awareness on other consequences or other alternatives result in the same findings. Only then it could be recommended to look into other measures to encourage travellers to travel in a more conscious and more climate-friendly manner.