Green MEP, Champion of Environmental Charges and Tighter Aviation Noise Controls, to address HACAN ClearSkies’ AGM
Dr Caroline Lucas calls for aviation fuel to be taxed
Dr Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for South East England, who successfully steered measures to reduce the environmental impact of air travel through the European Parliament last year (1), will be the guest speaker at the AGM of HACAN Clear Skies, the world’s largest anti-noise group with 25,000 members, on 29th March (2).
Dr Lucas, who is a member of the European Transport & Environment Committee said, “Aviation is one of the most feather-bedded industries in the country — a million miles away from the lean machine image the industry likes to project. We need to end the subsidies it that receives. I am pressing Europe to introduce a kerosene tax. At present, aviation fuel costs just 18p a gallon. It defies logic to give tax breaks to an industry that is so harmful to the environment.”
John Stewart, Chair of HACAN ClearSkies, supporting Dr Lucas’s call for a tax on aviation fuel, said, “A million people under flight path to Heathrow are paying an awful price for cheap flights. We live under a sky of sound, with aircraft coming over our homes one every 90 seconds. It is plain daft that it can be cheaper to fly to Rome than take the train to Edinburgh. European government’s must cut the massive subsidies the aviation industry receives.”
Notes for Editors
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Caroline Lucas is the rapporteur to the European Parliament Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism Committee for the report on Air Transport and the Environment. In approving her paper on aviation last year, the European Parliament agreed to press for:
- airports to give preferential flight times to aircraft with higher environmental performance;
- aviation to be subject to the same 5% greenhouse gas emission reduction targets as other sectors under the Kyoto treaty;
- a worldwide kerosene tax;
- an environmental charge to be introduced on flights to and from EU airports;
- new initiatives to reduce noise from aircraft based on World Health Organisation guidelines, and the designation of “noise sensitive” airports;
- an urgent study of the economic impact of the present zero rating of VAT on air tickets, kerosene and aircraft purchase;
- a study into the possibility of awarding environment performance certification marks for the industry.
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The HACAN ClearSkies AGM will take place at Sheen Lane Centre, Sheen Lane, East Sheen on Thursday 29th March at 7.30pm.
For more information contact:
John Stewart, 0207 737 6641 or 07957 385650
Caroline Lucas (London) 0207 407 6281; (m) 0802 721 996
Alan Francis Green Party MEPs Press Officer 0776 997 0691