This green wheeze is a self-defeating dead end

LET’S get something out of the way: in theory, I do not oppose Westerners giving money to developing nations so that fruit trees may be planted. Quite the contrary.

Here we are, though: £1.23 added to restaurant bills, a new — discretionary — carbon footprint charge. The scheme, called Carbon Friendly Dining and backed by a Canada-based retail consultancy called Lightspeed, aims to fight the climate crisis with this token sum.

Apparently the initiative “helps counterbalance the environmental impact” of diners’ meals and “also help some of the poorest communities on the planet”. Noble, admirable. Chefs such as James Martin and London restaurant groups from Cubitt House to Rossopomodoro have joined up. I’ve no doubt each has good intentions. But there are problems. To start, scores of diners are likely to think this scheme is a little sneaky.

A Carbon Friendly Dining spokesman said at the time that the charges were “highly visible” and “completely optional”. But when we have psychologists suggesting these monetary novelties are unlikely to be challenged when social embarrassment is taken into account … come on. It’s sustainability by the back door. It’s restaurants that will suffer. There’s a lot of superficial work, particularly at chains, but any hospitality business worth its salt will attempt to act in an environmentally responsible fashion even if it’s as much about marketing as it is about impressing Sir David Attenborough.

And so adding this small fee to bills seems a little short-sighted. It will rile up guests who want to go out and have a good time. Eating out is already expensive, incomes are stretched.

The buck cannot be continuously passed on to the little people. And you know what, if nothing else, with the fossil fuels and the private jets, the factory farms and the Range Rovers, the world is heating up and drying up and these fruit trees probably wouldn’t last anyway.

This £1.23 surcharge is only going to annoy people trying to enjoy themselves in the twilight of humanity.

Indiscretion: one diner was frustrated by the charge added to his bill at a recent pub meal