Airlines attack Gordon Brown over 'green taxes'
24.01.07
Chancellor Gordon Brown's decision to double air passenger duty (APD) from Ferbruary 1 was attacked by three of the UK's leading airlines yesterday as the wrong way to fight climate change. British Airways, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic, appearing jointly before MPs, insisted they were serious about cutting emissions, but Mr Brown's air passenger duty did not create an incentive to invest in cleaner technology, they said. All three backed carbon trading as the best way to reduce emissions.
In his pre-Budget report last month, Mr Brown doubled APD - from £5 to £10 on economy class short haul passengers (from £20 to £40 for business class short haul passengers) and from £20 to £40 for economy class long haul passengers (from £80 to £160 for business and first class long haul passengers).
But Barry Humphreys, Virgin Atlantic's director of external affairs and route development, said the chancellor's scheme was 'a poor environmental tax'. He told the Commons Treasury Committee: 'It does not achieve any environmental objectives. There must be better ways of achieving those objectives.'
Mr Humphreys said the European Emissions Trading Scheme, which airlines are due to join in 2012, was a more effective system. He added that airlines 'would be far happier' with the tax 'if the money collected by the chancellor was used for environmental purposes.'
Andrew Kershaw, British Airways' environmental affairs manager, called on air passenger duty to be replaced by a carbon trading scheme. He said: ' We believe it would be more suitable to have something more in line with emissions trading rather than based on taxation, which we don't believe is environmentally effective. Equally, we believe that once emissions trading was in place as a more effective mechanism, there would be no purpose in having an APD or other environmental tax.'
Andrew Barker, easyJet's planning director, also criticised the aviation tax. He said: 'The problem with any tax is that it takes money away from us to invest in the new technology that reduces emissions. If we pay tax, it has to be something that forces good behaviour on airlines and forces the end result of fewer emissions.'
The chairman of the committee, John McFall, said that it was encouraging that the airlines had agreed to appear before MPs, but he said that they were not doing nearly enough to work together to fight climate change. He said: 'I get the feeling you have been dragged to the table. There are no initiatives from yourselves.' He asked the three airlines to write to the committee in six months time with a joint initiative to cut emissions.
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