Several travelers are preparing to take a business flight, in an archive image.AzmanJaka (Getty Images)Aviation, the most polluting form of transport, has not stopped growing after the pandemic: in Spain, the sector doubled emissions in 2022—latest data available—up to 6.96 million tons of CO₂, according to the environmental consulting firm Global Factor. Large companies play a key role in reducing this cause of global warming, given that business flights represent around 30% of aviation emissions in Europe, according to calculations by the environmental NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). The entity launches its Travel Smart ranking this Tuesday, which analyzes 328 multinationals from Europe, India and the United States and indicates that 83% do not have credible plans to reduce business flights. However, some companies have already begun to reduce their employees' flights – to replace them with trains or telematic meetings – and are marking the path of decarbonization in the face of climate change. “This classification evaluates more than 300 corporations from three continents whose employees The most fly, for example the 10 largest by market capitalization in each country and the largest in terms of employees,” says Helena Fortea, from Eco-Union, which is part of Travel Smart in Spain. “These companies are classified based on a dozen indicators related to emissions from the estimated trips they make by plane, their emissions reduction plans and public reporting. From there they are given a grade, from A – the best – to D”, he continues. Only 16 companies achieve an A – five more than in the previous edition – among them Pfizer, AstraZeneca, HSBC, Ericsson or Mapfre (the only Spanish one with a good rating). What are they doing well? “The Dutch Arcadis proposes to reduce emissions from air travel by 50% per employee by 2025 compared to 2019 levels (last pre-pandemic year), and does so by choosing the train by default for distances less than 700 kilometers, with a policy «virtual first, with a carbon budget for international travel and combining meetings to travel less, but with longer stays,» says Fortea. Another positive example is that of the Swiss Swiss Re, which also aims for that 50% reduction and It has a control panel for real-time travel, which includes costs, emissions, and a kind of internal “taxes” on flights; Additionally, each business unit has an individual travel carbon budget. As for Mapfre, it has set a credible emissions reduction target and intends to reduce corporate flights. The other 17 Spanish companies evaluated receive a poor rating, as happened the previous year. Telefónica, Indra, Naturgy, ACS, Banco Santander, BBVA, Caixa Bank, Iberdrola, Inditex, Repsol, Abertis, Gestamp, Grifols, Acciona, Técnicas Reunidas and Elecnor are in C, while El Corte Inglés is in D. “This is a worrying sign that most companies are not acting quickly enough or demonstrating a genuine commitment to reducing emissions from their air travel,” says T&E. According to the analysis, based on annual sustainability reports and climate change questionnaires, only 57 of 328 global companies have set targets to reduce emissions from business travel. Meanwhile, 44 companies report the total climate impact of their trips (which includes emissions other than CO₂), compared to 40 last year. Information is the first tool against climate change. Subscribe to it.Subscribe
Large multinationals
The document, which is published for the third consecutive year since 2022, focuses on large multinationals such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Danone or Unilever, which achieve poor scores due to their reluctance to limit their corporate air travel. . The emissions of these 328 multinationals remain at levels 46% lower than in 2019, but the risk is that they will rise again. “By not setting targets, they risk quickly returning to pre-Covid flying levels. […] Companies that do not set objectives, such as Inditex, Johnson & Johnson and Merck, are again close to their 2019 corporate travel levels,” the T&E document notes. He also criticizes platforms like Netflix or Apple, which send green messages about reducing emissions, but they are among the 25 companies that fly the most globally, and they have no plans to change it. Why focus on large companies? “Although frequent flyers are less than 1% of the population, they fly constantly, so we estimate that they represent about 50% of aviation emissions. Many of them make business trips, which account for a third of total emissions. Companies have to set ambitious goals to lead the change,” says Fortea. The campaign asks these companies to reduce their flights by 50% compared to 2019 levels. “Zero-emission planes and fuels will not arrive before 2030, for «The only effective way to reduce emissions is to fly less,» he points out. For this reason, they demand to replace them with trains or telematic meetings. Governments can encourage this change by improving the competitiveness of the train, recovering night trains that allow long distances to be traveled at night or by increasing the taxation of air travel. “It has been proven that on Madrid-Barcelona type routes with good train service and frequencies, almost eight out of every ten travelers choose the train over the plane,” summarizes the Eco-union spokesperson. Another idea to promote modal change is to eliminate flights between cities for which there is a fast and adequate rail alternative, as France has done by eliminating air journeys with a train alternative in less than two and a half hours. PSOE and Sumar approved a non-legal proposal a few days ago to urge the Spanish Government to do the same. The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility is carrying out a technical study to analyze whether the “rationalization of the use of short flights” could be a measure that “allows reducing air mode emissions”, but also other possible impacts of the initiative, although For now there is no decision in this regard. As for night trains, the Executive refuses to recover them because “they are deficient.” You can follow Clima y Medio Ambiente on Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter
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