Tuesday 14 January 2020

A Shorter Hop to Climate Change?

An interesting conundrum appears to be taking place in the UK. The new government promised that they would ensure better connectivity of the regions (e.g. Cornwall, The North-east and Northern Ireland) with major cities such as London to spread economic development. It now appears that our  largest short-haul plane company, Flybe, is in financial difficulties and they have pleaded to have a 'tax holiday' on their payments of duty (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/14/flybe-saved-after-successful-last-ditch-talks). The duty (aircraft fuel is not taxed in the same way as that for cars) was intended to generate money to off-set the very substantial greenhouse gases used by this mode of transport. Although it might well be possible to limit any such relief to short-haul flights wholly within the UK, the mechanism would also currently have to be offered to other carriers. Fail to give the 'holiday' and connectivity (and jobs) are likely to suffer. Give the holiday and climate change might well be further accelerated and the UK's already wobbly 'green' credentials take a hit.

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