Green Tax on Air Travel?

Tanja Gönner, the conservative environment minister in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, told German daily Berliner Zeitung on Thursday that the measure “would enable us to finance climate protection activities at home or in developing countries.”

The fee should not exceed “the high single-digit or low double-digit bracket,” Gönner told the paper.

The proposal is part of an ongoing debate on how to call the flight industry to account for its contribution to global warming.

Boom in discount airlines

Last month German Economics Minster Michael Glos said aircraft were responsible for 1.5 percent of climate-damaging emissions worldwide. The European Union said aviation makes up 3 percent of direct greenhouse gas emissions, though the estimates do not factor in indirect warming effects.

Previously, politicians had suggested raising a Europe-wide tax on kerosene, the high-powered fuel used in aircraft engines. But under pressure from industry leaders, that proposal has made little headway.

February, Baden-Württemberg’s General Secretary of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Thomas Strobl, suggested an alternative. He joined calls from his Social Democratic and Green counterparts to levy a flat fee on the price of airline tickets.

Strobl said that “flying is much too cheap compared to taking the train,” and that an additional ten euros is within any traveller’s budget. A boom in low-fare airlines has greatly increased the amount of air traffic in Europe in recent years. The rail industry is heavily subsidized in most European countries, while air travel is not.

Airlines resist proposal

But the flat-tax proposal is bound to encounter resistance from the airline industry. The European Regions Airline Association represents over 220 flight-related companies in Europe, and spokeswoman Lesley Shepherd responded with a “clear ‘no’” to the idea.

“We are not in favour of environmental taxes -- they do not benefit the environment,” she said. She called Strobl’s proposal a “misconception.”

Lesley suggested that government revenues from environmental taxes are not always used for environmental research. She said “the real reason (for the fee) is to stop people from flying.”

Indeed, the debate began late last year when politicians called on Germans to avoid jetting off to far-flung destinations and holiday at home instead. The latest proposal was timed to coincide with the publication of the second United Nations report on climate change, due to appear on Friday.