Scottish ‘transport alliance’ makes plea for new tax on frequent flyers
A NATIONAL alliance of 60 sustainable transport groups has called for a tax on frequent flyers to help put Scots off using aircraft.
Transform Scotland, the alliance which brings together passenger groups, councils, environmental charities, universities and transport operators such as CalMac, Stagecoach and ScotRail says a frequent flyer levy would hit the “small minority of passengers” who take the majority of flights.
But it says the Scottish Government should make better use of taxation to put people off flying.
The plan emerged as it criticised ministers’ plans to curb avation’s carbon emissions as “woefully lacking”.
But Edinburgh Airport has hit back saying that there should be a collective effort to find solutions to carbon emissions rather than “only focus on one mode of transport that is important to Scotland”.
Transform Scotland said the Scottish Government’s aviation strategy includes a reliance on technologies such as sustainable aviation fuels, air taxis and electric planes, most of which will not be ready to be deployed at a large scale within this decade.
Graeme Dey, who quit as transport minister earlier this week, has previously demanded “radical behavioural change” in Scots’ transport choices – amid a warning that journeys by both plane and car will need to be permanently cut to end the country’s contribution to the climate crisis.
Transport is Scotland’s biggest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, but progress in cutting pollution in the sector since 1990 has stalled.
Scotland has halved its emissions since 1990, but MSPs have pledged to cut them by 75 per cent by 2030 and become carbon net zero by 2045.
Major targets
FORECASTING by the Scottish Government hopes to see transport emissions reduced from 11MtCO2e in 202 to 6.5 MtCO2e by 2028 where it is expected to remain at that level until at least 2032.
An independent report, drawn up by low carbon consultancy Element Energy, found that “in order to meet its emission targets domestic and international aviation emissions assigned to Scotland need to fall by 33% between 2019 and 2030”, meaning a “reduction in total flight kilometres travelled”.
Transform Scotland said it “seriously questions the commitment” of ministers to decarbonised the aviation sector. It said the Scottish Government must ensure the net-zero transition of the aviation sector does not exclude people who rely on flying, particularly with regard to Highlands and Islands communities.
But the group added that flying is primarily the privilege of a “well-off minority of the population” while the cost of flying to the climate affects the wider population.
Just 1% of the UK population takes 20% of all international flights with nearly half the population (48%) not taking any international flights within a year, it said.
Nearly three years ago, the Scottish Government dropped controversial plans to cut its taxes on aviation after Nicola Sturgeon declared the world faced a climate emergency.
Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish environment secretary at the time, said cutting air passenger duty would be incompatible with its new pledge to cut Scotland’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2045.
The Scottish Government faced intense cross-party pressure to keep the levy in place after the First Minister accepted recommendations from the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) that Scotland should adopt a 2045 target date.
Cuts criticism
CRITICS of the proposed aviation tax cut, which the SNP had pledged to introduce in successive elections, said reducing the levy by 50% would increase CO2 emissions from aviation in Scotland by at least 60,000 tonnes and cut tax income by about £150 million.
But the sum did not take into account the sharp increase in flying which Scotland’s airports hoped that would lead to.
Transform Scotland spokesman Marie Ferdelman said: “The proposals put forward to tackle the climate crisis are entirely removed from reality. They rely on technologies such as sustainable aviation fuels, air taxis and electric planes, most of which will not be ready to be deployed at a large scale within this decade.
“We need to make cuts in emissions now, not wish away action to the far future.
“The paper makes speculation about air taxes but fails to address aviation taxation. It focuses on speculative technological responses when there are very clear options available now to make major cuts in short-haul flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London.
“Unfortunately, this is left ignored in the document.
“It’s not good enough for the aviation sector to continue to be given a free pass when it comes to climate policy. It would be grossly inequitable to expect other sectors to make up for the aviation sector’s failure to decarbonise.”
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “Scotland has ambitious environmental targets and it will require all industries and sectors to work together to find a path towards net zero.
“Carbon is the enemy we face here so we would view this as an opportunity to collectively work together to find solutions rather than only focus on one mode of transport that is important to a country nation like Scotland that relies on aviation for connectivity to its islands and the rest of the world.”
Proposals put forward to tackle the climate crisis are entirely removed from reality. We need to make cuts in emissions now