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Britain

UK Imposes Greenie Tax On Air Travel

2006-12-07

Duty on fuel and flights increases in campaign to cut emissions

Air passengers will pay an extra £1 billion a year in tax to help to pay for the environmental cost of their journeys, the Chancellor announced yesterday. Air passenger duty will double on bookings made from February 1, ending a five-year freeze. The rates for flights within Europe will rise from £5 to £10 for economy class and £10 to £20 for business class. On long-haul flights to destinations outside Europe, the tax will rise from £20 to £40 in economy and £40 to £80 in business and first class.

Mr Brown said that the increase would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation by 1.1 million tonnes a year. Motorists will pay the first increase in fuel duty for three years, up in line with inflation by 1.25p a litre from today, pushing the average price of petrol up to 88p a litre.

Mr Brown said that both tax increases were designed to reduce harmful emissions from transport, but the Treasury refused to give details of how they would affect demand for travel. Airlines and motoring groups said that the extra taxes were revenue-raising measures that would do little to reduce demand and have minimal impact on the environment.

Posted by:.com

#7 I lived there in 1977. Link

Posted by: phil_b 2006-12-07 18:09

#6 Mr Brown said that the increase would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation by 1.1 million tonnes a year.

Unfortunately, the revenue from the tax will increase CO2-laden bloviations from politicians by 1.3 million tonnes a year.

Posted by: Seafarious 2006-12-07 11:54

#5 When did you live there, phil_b? When we drove through in 1987 or thereabouts, I was shocked by how small it was, although conceivably we only crossed a corner of it. But I remember being told, when we stopped at a pub for lunch, that a good deal of it had been sold off and cleared. Perhaps the time frame was "since the Middle Ages" rather than recently...

Posted by: trailing wife 2006-12-07 08:35

#4 TW, I once lived in a very small village called Loxley (of Robin Hood fame) on the edge of the Pennine moors. In those days, Sherwood forest extended into the Pennine uplands.

Posted by: phil_b 2006-12-07 08:13

#3 Are they going to use the funds to plant trees in an expanded Sherwood Forest? Perhaps replace the endless hectares of evergreens dying in the Schwarzwald from the effects of acid rain? How exactly will this surtax impact emissions? When we lived in Germany, the local branch of the American Women's Club purchased saplings, then spent a Saturday planting them out on a recently capped landfill, much to the shock of the neighbors -- nobody'd ever done such a thing before, apparently. I don't recall worrying about CO2-caused global warming then, but rather of food and shelter for wildlife and walks through the woods for the children.

Posted by: trailing wife 2006-12-07 07:55

#2 How about all those that voted green be banned from air travel and lets just see how good their convictions really are.

Posted by: Classer 2006-12-07 06:47

#1 Q. How does increasing a Tax help?
A. It doesn't, if anything it makes it worse.

Taxation is redistribution. The money will be transferred to someone else, and without market pressure they will on average use the money less efficiently, and thus create MORE pollution.

Pure idiocy.

Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan 2006-12-07 05:43

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