by Severin Carrell
Sunday, March 16, 1997
Cheap air travel and budget holidays are under threat from new moves by transport ministers to introduce an aviation fuel tax unilaterally in Europe.
The Dutch transport minister Annemarie Jorritsma last week won support from Austria and Scandinavian countries when she called for the EU to levy a tax on kerosene before the tax is introduced globally. Her proposal was opposed by the UK, France and Germany but they agreed at an EU transport ministers' meeting in Brussels to order a feasibility study, to be finished by the end of this year, into introducing EU-wide taxes on fuel, air tickets or passengers.
The Dutch proposal signals tougher-than-expected moves by EU member states to lift the worldwide exemption from taxation for aviation fuel because of the industry's impact on global warming through carbon dioxide and water vapour emissions from jets.
Pollution specialists calculate that jets deposit 450 million tonnes of CO2 and 200 million tonnes of water vapour a year in the upper atmosphere. Though that is about 2.5% of total CO2 emissions, the proportion is increasing fast as the airline industry is growing at 5% a year, while total CO2 levels are being cut.
The EU agreed 10 days ago to set tougher-than-ever targets for cutting CO2 by 2010. It is now widely expected airlines will be drawn into international moves to tackle climate change, which are due to be hardened further at an international climate conference in Japan in December.
Lord Goschen, the UK's aviation minister, told the meeting he supported a global tax on fuel but said introducing a European tax in isolation would penalise European airlines and travel firms by forcing fares up and reducing cut-price services.
Many observers also fear airlines will start making stops in countries on the EU's borders in which there was no kerosene tax in order to buy cheaper fuel.
Gijs Kuneman, of the pressure group Transport and Environment, said: "We're talking about a very substantial degree of damage to the ozone layer and the further greenhouse effect caused by water vapour. It's only logical to start doing something about this growth."
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