Sweden hits out at Thunberg ‘flight shaming’ movement

SWEDEN’S government has hit out at the country’s net zero “flight shaming” movement as it announced a 1bn krona (£76m) cash injection for the airline industry.

Andreas Carlson, the infrastructure minister, said the sum would be invested to support carriers as they struggle to recover from the Covid pandemic, high energy prices and the economic toll from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Mr Carlson said: “There are few reasons to feel flight shame and as the (green) transition increases there will be even fewer.”

His words refuted the Swedish concept of “flygskam”. The movement, which began in 2018 and literally means “flight shame”, has led the public to forego air travel because of the guilt associated with the carbon emissions.

It was spearheaded by campaigner Greta Thunberg, who in 2019 took a two-week journey across the Atlantic on a 60ft racing yacht to attend a UN Climate Summit in New York without travelling by air.

In 2022, Sweden formed its first Right-wing government in eight years.

Although the Left-wing Social Democrat party secured the most votes, it lost its majority to a coalition between the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals. The grouping is supported by the far-right, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party, which is not a formal member but has influence over policy in exchange for backing the coalition in parliament.

Its support for airlines marks a change of tone.

In 2020, the former government announced plans to launch overnight trains to Germany and Belgium – a move welcomed by Tomas Eneroth, the then-infrastructure minister, who tweeted: “It should be easy to choose the right way and travel climate smart.”

The new money will be channelled into airport security and baggagehandling costs.

These fees are paid per passenger in Sweden and such services became seriously underfunded during Covid because of the dramatic decrease in the number of people flying.

Mr Carlson said: “A billion-krona debt has accumulated in this system. This debt is now being paid off by the state’s capital injection.”