I believe the concept of sustainable travel is present in many travellers minds but often the actualities of achieving it seem unclear or unfeasible. How can travel be sustainable? Perhaps it is paying an extra £5 towards carbon offset when booking a flight or avoiding destinations deemed prone to ‘overtourism’. Either way, with a quick search one can soon become overwhelmed with the suggestions to achieve this and the complications it may add to the planning process. A lot of the recommendations online may also incur added costs, such as shopping locally, travelling by train and booking eco-conscious accommodation, unfortunately making sustainable travel inaccessible to some. Another question then arising is, how do the benefits of travel weigh against the almost inevitable carbon cost?
While the UN Sustainable Development Goals are a good outline for directions of growth for corporations and countries, I am unsure as to their worth when applied to the individual traveller. For instance, I believe that for goals such as no poverty, zero hunger and quality education, an individual can contribute much more to these aims when at home, with time to dedicate toward community enriching projects spanning multiple years. I think this is also more rewarding than when contributing to these goals while travelling as you can witness and appreciate the progress made. None of this is to say that I do not believe in contributing towards or achieving sustainability when travelling, rather that a different approach is required.
For instance, in my upcoming year in China I have spent time considering ways in which the trip can be as sustainable as possible. This includes looking into (and being awed by) the impressive national rail system with which I will be travelling around the country and the proximity of my accommodation to the university and local amenities. Another pleasant surprise when researching the country was how eating out for most meals is entirely ordinary and cheaper than cooking! This means that alongside supporting local shops I can also drastically reduce my plastic use associated with packaged food.
Holistically, I believe that travel, especially when abroad, will always lead to carbon cost which is important for everyone to take responsibility for and minimise as much as possible. Better documentation on the carbon costs of flights and packaged foods vs trains and fresh groceries would be helpful to achieve this aim. Perhaps if the carbon cost of each mode of transport or each product could be presented next to the financial cost it would help the sustainability-conscious traveller.
I think that the two questions posed here simplify down to the same, especially when considering the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These goals portray sustainable development to be reliant on climate action but also societal change and betterment. Therefore, I think that the experience, knowledge of the world and compassion gained through travel play an important role in sustainable development. These societal benefits, alongside carefully made, eco-minded decisions whilst away in China make the trip environmentally justifiable.
