One in four Indians will ditch air travel for greener options: Study

india

Updated: Oct 19, 2019 13:12 IST

Only one in four Indians are willing to take a lower carbon footprint alternative to air travel, even at the cost of inconvenience and additional expense, according to a new World Economic Forum study.

About 37% Indians on the other hand would take the transport with a lower carbon footprint - railways, for example -- if it is at par with air travel, both in convenience and price, showed the findings of the survey.

While 24% Indians said they were undecided, 17% refused to choose their mode of transportation, basis the carbon footprint.

These were some of the findings of the 27-country survey conducted for the World Economic Forum by market research firm Ipsos. For this survey, Ipsos interviewed a total of 19,023 adults between June 21 and July 5 this year.

“Interestingly, if we see, for long distance travel, there is no alternative to air travel, unless we consciously look for using videocon, webinar etc. especially for business meetings,” Rinku Patnaik, Chief Client Officer, Ipsos India, said in a statement.

“Air travellers probably can also on their part make an informed decision, if we at a country level have some sort of an ‘eco-labelling’ of the carrier; and passengers can act responsible by choosing accordingly,” Patnaik said.

Over half of Indians polled felt airlines have the ability of finding solutions that reduce the adverse impact on the environment.