MAASTRICHT. As of January 2019, researchers [and other staff] from the UNU-MERIT institute pay a flying tax when they book a domestic flight or a flight abroad. The tax is deducted from the project budget. “I was slightly apprehensive for the reactions,” says director Bart Verspagen, “but the plan went down well.” At UNU-MERIT, which has more than 100 researchers, there is a lot of flying, says Verspagen. “We calculated that our members of staff emitted approximately 450 tonnes of CO2 in 2018. I...
This year’s UN-Habitat Global Report on Human Settlements is dedicated to sustainable mobility. In its foreword, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon highlights the urgent need to invest in urban transport to ensure sustainable development around the world. Undoubtedly, 2014 will see a multiplication of the global actions for sustainable transport that we’ve witnessed in 2013. For decades, developing countries followed the failed US suburban development model; a model based on addiction to car...