The Polluter Doesn't Pay!

As countries attempt to progressively limit their release of 'greenhouse gases', the costs of cleaning up gets more and more expensive. This appears to be especially true for air travel ( https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/22/cleanup-cost-of-heathrow-third-runway-doubles-to-100bn-mps-told). For example, the carbon cost of the proposed expansion of London's Heathrow airport has doubled from the figure given at the time the scheme was politically approved to £100bn. Another 8 active UK airport expansion plans, have a further combined emissions cost of around £74bn. Only a fraction of these costs is reclaimed in taxation from the aviation industry (and this is reducing with new tax breaks). The rest of the clean up cost falls on the UK government (i.e. the tax payer, whether he or she flies or not). Indeed, some people suggest that air travel enjoys a relatively enormous public subsidy.