AIR DUTY DEBATE REVEALS OTHER PARTIES’ CO2 CONTRADICTIONS

20 November 2012

Scottish Greens are criticising the bigger political parties at Holyrood for backing aviation growth, contradicting their commitments to Scotland’s climate change targets.

Today the SNP Government will use a debate on air passenger duty to call for the tax to be devolved so it can be cut to encourage more flights, despite research showing cheap international air travel causes the UK an annual spending deficit of £17billion.

Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow and transport spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, said:

“Scotland’s airports are booming and the greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector have risen relentlessly for decades. The bigger parties all supported the creation of CO2 reduction targets and it’s vital they honour that commitment.

“Scotland has missed its first target and the minister has offered no sign of taking extra steps to get us back on track. How on earth can our commitment to climate change be taken seriously if we fail to recognise the environmental cost of the most polluting form of transport?

“It’s sad but not surprising to see the bigger political parties jostling for position as the aviation industry’s best buddy, an industry that doesn’t pay VAT or fuel duty. Scotland’s international connectivity is of course important but we should be finding smarter ways to stay connected rather than fuelling another jet age.”

Useful background:

Oxford University report Predict and Decide. The report shows there is a £17 billion tourism deficit resulting from UK residents spending more money abroad than overseas visitors bring in – for every £1 an overseas visitor spends in the UK, a UK resident spends £2.32 abroad.

Report showing 11.3 per cent rise in passenger numbers in past year at Aberdeen airport and 4.6 per cent rise in Glasgow.

The amendment submitted by the Greens for today’s debate:
“That the Parliament notes with concern that greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector in Scotland have risen relentlessly and were 118% higher in 2009 than in 1990; considers that continual aviation growth is incompatible with the climate change targets which were agreed unanimously by the Parliament in 2008 and reaffirmed unanimously by the current Parliament in 2012; supports the use of financial measures such as Air Passenger Duty, alongside other approaches, to restrain the growth of aviation emissions within limits which do not threaten the goal of a low-carbon Scotland.”

You can read the government’s motion here.

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