LONDON: Scarcely audible amid the storm of financial scandal last week was the sound of Labour overshooting its target on greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Change review, a report on progress towards greener government, evaporated over Westminster like a vapour trail behind a jumbo jet.

In the review, the government admitted it would fail to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2010 — a pledge in every manifesto since 1997.

To be fair, Britain has a greener record than most of the EU. The UK is at least on target to meet its commitments under the Kyoto protocol. Gordon Brown’s budget and David Cameron’s speeches demonstrate that environmental zeal is now considered de rigueur for aspiring prime ministers. But neither man has radical policies to match the rhetoric. That is because the sharpest instrument for cutting pollution is a tax on polluters.

Nowhere is the problem clearer than in aviation. As it is being reported Britons will take more than half a billion flights annually by 2020, up from 189 million in 2002 and far in excess of recent government forecasts. Air travel is our fastest growing source of greenhouse gases and the most pernicious, since emissions at altitude have more than twice the impact of those on the ground.

Airlines pay no VAT, no fuel duty and are exempt from the climate change levy. A regular defence of this regime is that government hands are bound by international agreement. Another is that bigger airports and cheaper flights boost the economy and that taxing them would send capital and jobs overseas. Then there is the social equality defence: poorer people benefit most from cheap flights.

These are obstacles to a greener aviation policy. The UK government has often promised to lead the way in reshaping international treaties. It has also promised investment in alternative energy sources and more fuel-efficient transport. These would bring massive economic benefits of their own. As for the social cost, the vast majority of cheap flights are taken by the affluent middle classes. Low-income families account for around six per cent of the total.—Dawn/The Observer News Service