Cost of air travel 'must rise to deter people from flying'

Government advisory body on climate change says ticket prices should rise to ensure emissions fall to 2005 levels

David Batty and Caroline Davies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 September 2009 08.09 BST

The cost of air travel must rise to an extent that it deters people from flying and to compensate developing countries for the damage it does to the environment, according to the government's advisory body on climate change.

Ticket prices should rise to ensure that carbon dioxide emissions from aviation fall back to 2005 levels and to raise tens of billions of pounds in flight taxes to help developing nations adapt to climate change, for example, by building new flood defences, the committee on climate change says.

An agreement to cap aviation emissions must be reached at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen if countries are to meet targets to combat global warming, the committee said in a letter to ministers. Rich countries should take the lead, ensuring their aviation emissions were no higher or lower than they were in 2005 by 2050.

It says airlines should be forced to share the burden of meeting that emissions cut, the Times reports.

In advance of the December meeting in Denmark, the committee says any deal to reduce emissions from flying should be "ambitious", and the aim should be for no less than the EU's current plan, which require a 5% reduction in emissions from 2013 to 2020.

The committee could challenge the government's decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow airport in order to reduce C02 emissions sufficiently to meet that target, according to the paper.

While the cost per passenger of compensating developing countries for climate change would initially be small, it would eventually rise to a level that would deter people from flying.

The average passenger would pay under £10 extra per return ticket when aviation joins the European Union C02 emissions trading scheme in 2012, the Times says.

The scheme will give airlines free carbon permits covering 85% of their emissions but they will have to buy permits for the remaining 15%. The committee on climate change says airlines should have to pay for all their emissions, which would more than double the cost to passengers.

Writing to Lord Adonis, the transport secretary and Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, the committee's chief executive, David Kennedy, said the measures would not force people to fly less.

"It is vital that an agreement capping global aviation emissions is part of a Copenhagen deal," he said.

"We are calling for a cap that would not require people to fly less than today, but would constrain aviation emissions growth going forward," he said.

"Such a cap together with deep emissions cuts in other sectors would limit the risk of dangerous climate change and the very damaging consequences for people here and in other countries that this would have."

Without steps to stop growth in aviation emissions, planes could account for as much as a fifth of all CO2 produced worldwide by 2050, the committee warned.

The BBC reports that if aviation fails to reduce its C02 emissions the rest of the economy may have to make deeper cuts of 90% by 2050 - 10% more than currently planned.

The committee said it supported plans to include flying in the EU-wide emissions trading scheme, which would give the aviation industry some carbon credits to cover some of its output and let them purchase allowances from greener companies to make up the shortfall. But in the long term real cuts must be made, rather than rich countries relying on offsetting their emissions by purchasing credits from poorer countries under international trading schemes.

A government spokesman said: "The UK now has the toughest climate change regime for aviation of any country in the world and we will bring international pressure for aviation emissions to be part of global deal on climate change at the Copenhagen conference later this year."

A Greenpeace climate change campaigner, Vicky Wyatt, said any government would find it "almost impossible" to build a third runway at Heathrow if they followed the committee's advice.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/0 ... -transport