Oh dear, oh dear. Camilla Cavendish seems not to have got the point of the current taxation of flights.
A fuel tax is also needed. The Treasury dismissed this weekend’s Tory
proposal, that domestic flights should pay tax on fuel, as a unilateral
action that was inappropriate in a multilateral context. But the
Netherlands, Japan, India and the US already tax fuel on domestic flights.
All that we have done is to impose air passenger duty, retrospectively, and
with zero environmental impact. Empty planes pay nothing.
I agree that Air Passenger Duty is not perfect. However, it is at about the correct rate if we consider purely the CO2 emissions (I’m not sure about the claim that aircraft emissions are worse because they take place at altitude). If we take Stern’s $85 per tonne CO2 (which for the sake of argument I shall) then £10 on a short haul flight does indeed cover the quarter tonne of CO2, roughly. So far from doing nothing, we’re actually doing exactly the right thing.
For we’re not in fact trying to price people out of aeroplanes. We’re trying to balance the desires and needs of those alive now with the desires and needs of those in the future. That is exactly what the $85 number is, the balancing item. As long as we are in fact paying that price, then we’re ending up with the socially optimal amount of whatever the activity is, when balanced across people and time.
Far from doing nothing, we’re doing just what we ought to.
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