Walsh: air passengers should pay emissions tax
12.06.09
Airline passengers should pay a global tax on carbon and accept an increase in the cost of flying for the sake of the environment, the chief executive of British Airways has told The Times. He told the newspaper that the tax should raise at least $5 billion (£3 billion) a year to be used to combat tropical deforestation and help developing companies to adapt to climate change.
The airline has joined forces with Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways to call for aviation emissions to be included in a global deal on climate change due to be agreed at the United Nations conference in Copenhagen in December. They are proposing that the conference should set an emission reduction target for international flights, which were excluded from the Kyoto climate change agreement.
But Mr Walsh went further than the other airlines by explicitly stating that passengers should expect to pay more for their flights to compensate for their environmental impact. He said airlines should be forced to buy permits from 2013 to cover their carbon emissions in a global emissions trading scheme.
He told the Times: ‘It would increase [airline] costs. It has to increase fares. For the industry to play its part the people who benefit from that industry - the passengers - are going to have to pay. Airlines can’t escape the responsibility of addressing the impact that aviation has on the environment. We accept that our industry has got to improve. The critical thing is to cap overall carbon dioxide and then provide financial incentives to industries that have other fuel sources and technologies to reduce their CO2 output.’
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