The climate campaigners who fly the most

from Sunday Herald, 28 January 2007

Some of the groups in Scotland campaigning against the pollution that causes climate chaos have often chosen to fly - the most polluting way to travel.

A Sunday Herald survey of flights within Britain has exposed the Soil Association, Oxfam, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) as the most frequent fliers amongst non-governmental organisations.

Their record has been criticised by fellow campaigners as "disappointing". But the groups all accept that they have to cut back on domestic flights, with the Soil Association seeking to eliminate them entirely.

A dozen environmental and campaign groups in Scotland were asked for details of flights made by staff within mainland Britain over the last year (see table below). All the journeys could have been made by train, which causes three times less climate-wrecking pollution.

Soil Association Scotland, which promotes organic food, scored the highest number of flights per member of staff. With only 12 employees in Edinburgh, the organisation racked up 39 journeys by air last year, most of them by its director, Hugh Raven.

Raven was, however, contrite about the flights, which he said he was trying to phase out. "For an environmental organisation to be guilty of this much flying is completely unsustainable," he admitted.

"But no other organisation has the problems we have. Our UK headquarters is in the south west of England and travelling by train is a 14-hour round-trip that costs four times the price of a typical flight."

Raven now regularly takes the train to head office in Bristol, but pointed out that other members of staff with childcare responsibilities couldn't afford the time. "Ask the same questions in 12 months and you'll get better answers," he promised. "We welcome the scrutiny."

Oxfam's 81 staff in Scotland took 121 internal flights last year, mostly travelling to the organisation's UK headquarters in Oxford. "Oxfam is currently reviewing our travel arrangements because of our concerns over climate change and this will result in a greater use of trains," said an Oxfam spokesperson.

RSPB Scotland's 165 staff took 86 flights, which the organisation defended by pointing out that it was only a small proportion of the journeys made by train. "We set staff performance targets linked to reducing individual carbon emissions, and encourage train use," said director Stuart Housden.
 
"There's some way to go, but the scale and the geographical spread of our conservation work across the UK means that unfortunately we can't yet rule out air travel completely."

Every group said it was trying to reduce air travel, and four pointed out that their staff had not flown at all within mainland Britain in the last year. WWF Scotland's 19 staff based in Dunkeld made 87 trips to London and Surrey, all of them by train.

WWF Scotland's director, Dr Richard Dixon, warned that campaigning groups had to be careful to put their own house in order. "It is disappointing to see that taking the plane appears to be an everyday business practice for some who should know better," he said.

"As concern over climate change grows it will become increasingly unacceptable for anyone at all to take a flight within the UK mainland except in the most urgent of circumstances. Such wanton disregard for the environment must become as socially unacceptable as drink driving."

The Sunday Herald can also reveal that the MSP who has flown the most within Britain is Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat who represents Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. In seven months last year, he made 13 flights between Inverness and Edinburgh.

Details released by the Scottish Parliament in response to a request under freedom of information legislation showed that 26 MSPs made 67 flights on official business between 1 April and 26 October 2006. Other frequent fliers were the Tory MSP Murray Tosh and the Presiding Officer, George Reid, who both made five flights to and from England and Wales.

The Labour MSP Marlyn Glen and the Independent MSP Brian Monteith, who used to be a Conservative, made four flights. The Scottish Green Party's co-convenor, Robin Harper MSP, took one flight from London to Edinburgh, though a party spokesman said it had been re-routed from Cork in Ireland.

Earlier stories about the flights taken by the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and other public sector organisations are available here and here.

MAINLAND FLIGHTS BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

organisation / number of mainland flights in last year / number of staff / flights per member of staff

Soil Association Scotland / 39 / 12 / 3.25
Oxfam in Scotland / 121 / 81 / 1.49
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland / 86 / 165 / 0.52
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations / 48 / 140 / 0.34
National Trust for Scotland / 126 / 500 / 0.25
Scottish Wildlife Trust / 16 / 90 / 0.18
Woodland Trust Scotland / 2 / 24 / 0.08
TRANSform Scotland / 0 / 1 / 0
Scottish Environment Link / 0 / 7 / 0
Friends of the Earth Scotland / 0 / 17 / 0
WWF Scotland / 0 /19 / 0

Christian Aid failed to respond to inquiries.

source: non-governmental organisations