OK, so MEPs have voted to add aviation to the EUTS thingie. Not, on the face of it, absurd or even odd, although I\’ll bet The Treasury is going to be pissed that they\’ll now have to scrap their new aviation tax scheme replacing air Passenger Duty.
But here\’s what Caroline Lucas was proposing instead:
"Two years ago there was overwhelming support in Parliament for my pre-legislative report calling for a separate, closed scheme for aviation with a rigorous cap, full auctioning and measures to take account of aviation’s considerable non-CO2 impacts.
"However, today’s approved agreement will fall well short, allowing the sector unlimited access to credits from other sectors and lacking full auctioning of emissions permits, or a cap anywhere near as challenging as that demanded of other sectors."
Full auctioning is indeed a good idea: but what the buggery is this about a separate closed scheme? Has she, well, obviously she has, entirely missed the point about tradeable permits? The aim is that people will trade them and they\’ll end up with the uses that people (ie, consumers, paying the final bill) value the most. And if that turns out to be flights to Benidorm instead of fuel oil for the winter, well, that\’s what they want, that\’s what we\’re trying to find out and that\’s the damn point of having cap and trade in the first place.
Seriously, what is it with these people?
The green myth, which I suspect is bollocks but don’t have the climatic science knowledge to wholly refute, is that aviation has a super-turbo-mega CO2 impact because you’re releasing it nearer the sun, or something.
[that’s still dealable with by saying that each aviation tonne of CO2 is equivalent to two, or six, or fifty non-aviation tonnes of CO2, of course. No, I give up, I have no idea what it is with these people…]
“the aim is that people will trade them and they’ll end up with the uses that people (ie, consumers, paying the final bill) value the most. ”
That’s why she doesn’t like it you see Timmy. We, the public, have no right to make such choices. Our politicians have reserved the right to determine what’s best for us.