Airline tax plans slammed
Plans to double air passenger duty have today been condemned by the aviation industry and environmentalists alike, who argue they will not help tackle climate change.
Gordon Brown announced duty would rise by between £5 and £40 from February 1st, to reflect the fact that air travel accounts for six per cent of all carbon emissions.
“While we continue to work internationally to seek a global agreement on reducing aviation emissions, each country must take action domestically,” the chancellor said in his pre-Budget report (PBR) statement today.
He said the extra money raised by the initiative, which was announced alongside a package of other green measures, would be spent on “priorities such as public transport and the environment”.
However, airlines reacted angrily to the announcement and climate change campaigners said it will do nothing to change behaviour – the main reason behind introducing green taxation.
“These increases are highly regrettable. Air passenger duty is an extremely blunt instrument that provides the Treasury with extra funds for general public expenditure without any benefit to the environment whatsoever,” a British Airways spokesman said.
EasyJet chief executive Andy Harrison said the duty rise removed any incentive for airlines to use the most fuel-efficient planes as it was applied equally to all flights. He said including aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme would be more effective.
Another low-cost airline, Flybe, went described APD as the “poll tax on the skies” said it was a “regressive and direct tax on our passengers that has nothing to do with environmental considerations”.
Environmental groups have also condemned the duty increase and Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said all of Mr Brown’s announcements today – including a pledge for all new homes to be carbon neutral by 2016 – just “tinker in the margins”.
“The Stern review set out the urgent action needed to tackle climate change. But the chancellor’s response has been feeble,” he said.
“Key green initiatives have been ignored, and those that he has introduced are inadequate. Much more is required to make it easier and cheaper for people to play their part in cutting rising UK carbon dioxide levels.”
Green party principal speaker Sian Berry also dismissed the measures as “gesture politics” and warned: “Gordon Brown has a long way to go to gain any real green credentials, and his pre-budget report will not even start him on the right road.”
The PBR’s focus on green issues will be seen as an attempt by the chancellor to outflank his Conservative and Liberal Democrat rivals ahead of his expected move to No 10 next year. But both parties were quick to condemn his efforts.
“Today’s increase in air passenger duty should have been a replacement for other taxes – not additional taxes. It proves that he is more interested in raising taxes than cutting pollution,” said shadow chancellor George Osborne.
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable added: “This was a chance for the chancellor to match the brilliant analysis of climate change by Sir Nicholas Stern, who argued for urgent preventative measures costing one per cent of GDP.
“However, the measures announced today amount to only one tenth of that. Where does the rest come from?”
But environment secretary David Miliband defended the PBR plans, saying they were “consistent with the government’s belief that every part of the economy and society must play its part in the battle against climate change”.
