World’s Poorest Countries Want Levy on Airline Tickets
Travel Blog • Joanna Kakissis • 04.08.09 | 2:16 PM ET
Photo by Rich nations produce most of the world’s CO2 emissions but poor countries often pay the price, suffering through worsening droughts, intense flooding, rising sea levels, crop failures and pollution. Sometimes, their citizens are forced to become economic refugees, and leave their homes altogether.
So in the name of climate justice, representatives of the world’s 49 poorest countries told negotiators at UN climate talks in Bonn that air passengers should each pay a $6 emissions levy per flight, The Guardian reports. This could raise about $10 billion a year that poor nations could use to help adapt to climate change.
Some of the world’s leading airlines aren’t too sweet on the proposal, authored for the 49 nations by the Oxford Institute of Environment Studies. They would rather see individual airlines securing pollution permits that would be based on the carbon content of their yearly fuel purchases. Auctioning the permits would yield money that would be divided between the UN’s adaptation fund for developing nations and an effort that aims to save forests in poorer nations.