Forum - Coming Soon
New Taxes Fail To Effect Travel Emissions

Thu, 01 Feb 2007

British green tax plans that are currently in place are unlikely to curb the growth in greenhouse gas emissions from travel, according to a new study . High-income groups, whose emissions were twice the national average, would absorb any price increase rather than change their travel habits, it said.

Researchers from Oxford University said the data revealed how socio-economic factors shaped how people travelled.

They said targeted measures, such as personal carbon credits, were more likely to influence people's behaviour.

Last December Chancellor Gordon Brown doubled Air Passenger Duty on UK flights as part of the new environmental measures outlined, but it seems as though this will have no immediate effect on reducing C02 emissions .

The authors of the report questioned the effectiveness of ‘moderate’ tax hikes. "The most conclusive evidence from this study has been the relationship between income and emissions ."

"For example, less direct or modestly used fiscal instruments such as moderate petrol or aviation fuel-price increases are less likely to have an effect on the more wealthy sub-sector of the travelling community."
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.