It’s not hard to see why Chris Grayling jumped at the opportunity to visit Heathrow airport early on Tuesday to welcome passengers landing on a dreary morning at Terminal 2. He was marking the launch of an air service from Flybe – which will now be operating four return flights from Newquay on the north coast of Cornwall to London seven days a week.

This is a transport secretary made famous for his inability to actually transport things, whether that be people by train or goods over water (he’s even managed to stop cyclists making it safely from A to B) – and so for Grayling, a plane on a new flightpath taking off and landing on time is a much needed chance to claim an easy win and arrange a photo-op.

But while I’m sure travellers were thrilled to be greeted by grinning Grayling at baggage reclaim, news that more domestic flights are set to take off and land in Britain is not a cause for celebration. It’s remarkably irresponsible, even by this government’s standards, to embrace a growth in domestic air travel when global carbon emissions are on the up, as are global temperatures. To put it bluntly: it is entirely unsustainable while we’re in the midst of a climate emergency.

Just this week, budget airline Ryanair was revealed to be one of Europe’s top 10 carbon emitters alongside nine coal plants; the company’s carbon footprint is up nearly 50% in the past five years. And while aviation accounts for about 3% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, it’s forecasted that by 2050 this could rise by up to 700% as growth in demand continues. There’s a complex conversation to be had about how we drastically limit international air travel in a way that reduces climate change while offering travel opportunities. But, let’s be honest, in a country as small as the United Kingdom the vast majority of domestic fights are far from essential.

Chris Grayling: the transport secretary should prioritise rail, not air transport. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

That said, yesterday afternoon I took a quick look online to see the options for travel from Newquay to London and back for early next week. On Great Western Railway, a Super Off-Peak return ticket purchased in advance for the 250-mile journey would set me back £116, and it takes up to five hours each way. Meanwhile, I’d get change from £100 if I decided to fly, and I could be disembarking in just over one hour. It’s a broken system that’s reflected across the UK which urgently needs fixing.

It’s hard to quantify just how reckless unnecessary air travel is, and how misguided it is for our politicians to support it. According to the Aviation Environment Federation, taking a flight from Newquay to London sees (roughly) six times more emissions released per person than rail travel, and that’s before other emissions such as nitrogen oxides, which also contribute to global warming when released at such high altitudes, are taken into consideration.

But while it remains faster and cheaper to jump on a plane, it’s difficult to expect travellers not to. For families on a budget, the difference in cost can end up being huge; company bosses intent on efficiency are likely to want employees to be in transit for a short a time as possible. It’s why an antidote to our addiction to air travel won’t be found in “the market” or through consumer choice – no good will come of leaving it up to the individual to give up the short-term convenience of slightly faster journeys for the longer-term ambition of having a planet to live on.

That’s why we need bold governmental action if we’ve any chance of reducing emissions from travel. Instead of cosying up to airline executives at Heathrow, a transport minister should be campaigning to reverse the airport’s third runway plans. The state should be restricting all but essential domestic air travel in the UK and nationalising a sustainable rail service, subsidised where needed – intervention on this scale is sorely needed. It’s the role of the government to invest in sustainable employment for job losses that would follow: a Green New Deal in action. That should be a priority for any politician taking climate change seriously, but instead Grayling’s department is using public money to subsidise these Cornwall-London airfares.

These are the things he should have been talking about at Heathrow this week, rather than singing the praises of air travel. In fact, the only silver lining to Grayling’s airport announcement that he hopes to see more and more flights traversing the length and breadth of Britain is that, given his track record, it’s a plan that will end up failing miserably. Lo and behold, just this morning Flybe cancelled flights amid talks of hub closures. Failing Grayling strikes again – maybe there’s hope for the planet after all …

• Michael Segalov is a contributing editor to Huck magazine