Climate advisers say flight costs must increase to curb aviation emissions

Climate advisers have warned flights need to be taxed to curb the growth in aviation as the Government considers airport expansion plans at Luton, Gatwick and Heathrow.

The Climate Change Committee is urging the Government to commit to an 87 per cent cut on 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels by 2040 overall, with aviation emissions needing to fall by 17 per cent compared to 2023.

In its latest advice, the advisory committee warned the aviation industry must take responsibility for its emissions reaching zero overall by 2050, as part of UK-wide climate targets, and the cost of cutting pollution from the sector needs to be reflected in the price of flights.

That would push up costs, for example increasing the price of a return ticket to Alicante, Spain, by £150 and a round-trip to New York could be £300 more expensive by 2050.

The biggest share in emissions reductions for 2038 to 2042 comes from “managing” growth in demand for flights, followed by uptake of sustainable aviation fuel, as well as more efficient planes, hybrids and electric aircraft.

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Demand for flights could be managed by measures such as increasing air passenger duty or bringing in a frequent flyer levy, a move which was backed by a citizens’ panel organised by the committee as part of its recommendations.

The committee said limiting airport expansion and capacity could play a “supplementary role” in curbing demand.

Under the recommendations set out by the committee, passenger demand for flights would increase by just two per cent by 2035, 10 per cent by 2040 and 28 per cent by 2050 on 2025 levels.

The committee also said it expected to see technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere to offset emissions from flying start to bring down pollution.

Prof Piers Forster, interim chairman of the committee, said they were being “less prescriptive on the airport capacity” than in their last advice in 2020 – when they warned there could be no net increase in airport capacity.

But he said: “We are still explicit that if the industry isn’t investing enough in the alternative technologies, and if we’re beginning to see a big increase in aviation demand, then the Government would have to introduce additional policies to restrict demand, and one of…