Richer people should be made to fly less so poorer families can holiday without worsening Britain’s carbon footprint, Emma Pinchbeck, the Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee, has said. The Telegraph has more.
Emma Pinchbeck, the new Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said Net Zero meant flying should be considered a luxury, with airlines paying a price for the emissions they produce. However, she said it would be unfair to price lower income families out of air travel altogether.
Instead, the Climate Change Committee wants frequent fliers to be taxed more highly than those who fly just once a year. This would discourage richer travellers from flying as much, while not punishing the poor.
Ms Pinchbeck said: “What we have in our heads is the annual family holiday to somewhere sunny like Spain. Now I’ve got small children, so I completely understand the need for people to go away somewhere sunny every year. So we’ve tried to preserve that in our advice [to Ministers].”
She was giving evidence to the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee following last month’s publication of the CCC’s latest carbon budget, which advises Ministers on what’s needed to reach the UK’s target of net zero emissions by 2050. …
The aim was to persuade those people taking multiple annual flights to cut down by maybe one flight, she said.
More savings might be achieved by removing CO2 directly from the air or low carbon “sustainable aviation fuels” but such technologies are in their infancy.
She said cutting emissions from aviation was one of the UK’s biggest climate challenges because there were no viable alternatives to fossil fuels. …
The impact on consumers could be huge. The CCC’s modelling suggests the cost of a ticket to Alicante in Spain would need to rise by £150, while a return New York flight would cost an extra £300. …
Richard Tice, Reform UK’s Energy Spokesman, said the CCC was turning itself into the “anti-fun police”, adding: “Ms Pinchbeck sounds like a socialist grinch, wanting to stop people flying and tell us how we must change our behaviour. When Reform win the next election, she may want to keep her CV close to hand.”
Andrew Bowie, a Conservative Party energy spokesman, said: “The Climate Change Committee’s latest carbon budget proves that Labour’s 2050 Net Zero target will require people to make huge sacrifices and cost £319 billion over the next 15 years.
“Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband are simply not being honest when they say they won’t force people to change the way they live their lives.”
Worth reading in full.
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