Long-haul levy – towards a carbon tax?

A compulsory levy on international flight tickets and shipping fuel has been proposed ‘to raise billions of dollars to help the world’s poorest countries adapt to combat climate change’, according to guardian.co.uk.

I’m a fairly regular long-haul flyer. This is one of the reasons my own carbon footprint is pretty large, and like many others out there I feel a certain amount of guilt about it. Not everyone gets to fly, to travel, but everyone will be affected by climate change. This levy would increase my fare by less than 1%, roughly £50-£60 given my flying habits. I can stretch and find that sort of money once or twice a year, and I would bank on other long-haul flyers being able to do the same.

The plan should raise around $10bn a year. A considerable sum, but clearly not enough to really deal with the massive problems the poorest countries will face as the effects of climate change become felt more and more. As part of a wider ‘carbon tax’ style initiative it could make sense though. According to the Stern Review, aviation emissions are expected to account for 5% of the total warming effect in 2050 (2.5% of global emissions), and as of 2005 the emissions accounted for 1.6% of total GHGs. If all activity were to be taxed in a similar way, we would see hundreds of billions of dollars diverted for the express purpose of helping the poorest countries adapt to climate change.

This would be a start, an introduction to the way in which a full carbon tax could be manifested, and a model to show what could be achieved by such schemes.