Green tax of £70 a flight

know this is not mainstream solid waste, but it is relevant to environmental economic instruments, waste & resources, sustainable tourism, food miles etc etc…



Airline passengers should pay a green tax of at least £70 per return ticket to reduce the amount of global warming caused by flights, the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has said. The commission calculates that aviation’s contribution to global warming will quadruple by 2050 unless demand is checked by a tax on aircraft emissions and a ban on airport expansion. Airlines immediately condemned the proposals as a “tax on holidays”. In a report published the commission accused the Government of breaching its own commitment to sustainable development by proposing to allow a tripling in air travel by 2030.



The Times reports that Roland Clift, Professor of Environmental Technology at Surrey University, said that the growing trend towards taking weekend breaks to European capitals was unsustainable. Short-haul flights caused more pollution per mile travelled than long-haul flights because a fifth of all fuel was used in taking off and landing. Paul Ekins, head of environment at the Policy Studies Institute and another commission member, said that the Government would be guilty of a huge waste of money if it approved new runways or airports. He said that they would have to remain empty to prevent climate change.



The report is available from the Royal Commission’s website at:

www.rcep.org.uk/aviation/av12-txt.pdf