In 15 years, I imagine myself boarding a night train from Hamburg to Vienna, affordable, comfortable, and nearly carbon-free. Europe, I hope, will have finally made sustainable travel the easy default: expanded rail networks, frequent connections, reasonable prices. For someone living and working here, the low-carbon future of mobility might genuinely feel within reach.
But then I think about going home.
Hamburg to Kathmandu is not a train journey. It will not be in 2041 either. For millions of people from the Global South, students, researchers, families stretched across continents by economic necessity, flying is not a lifestyle choice but a lifeline. And yet it is precisely these long-haul routes, often connecting the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, that decarbonise last, if ever.
The desirable future I want is not just greener trains for Europeans. It is a world where the burden of carbon guilt is not quietly shifted onto those who have contributed least to the crisis, and who have the least freedom to opt out. That means affordable carbon-neutral aviation as a genuine policy priority, not an afterthought. It means frequent flyer levies that redistribute the cost to those who fly the most. And it means acknowledging that “sustainable travel” cannot remain a privilege of geography.
The obstacle is political will and an aviation industry still protected by tax exemptions that would be unthinkable for any other polluter (Larsson et al., 2019). The solution starts with honesty: a just mobility transition must be designed for everyone, not just those lucky enough to live near a train station.
Reference: Larsson, J., Elofsson, A., Sterner, T., and Åkerman, J. (2019). International and national climate policies for aviation: a review. Climate Policy, 19(6), 787–799. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2018.1562871