UK Ferry Tickets

One in three UK adults would support new taxes on air fares, if the money raised were used to offset the environmental damage caused by flights, according to new research.

However, the study, by Hyder Consulting, showed the majority of people are still unwilling to sacrifice foreign holidays to reduce their carbon footprint and more than half of those polled said they would still not consider switching overseas holidays to UK breaks.

Exactly right. Why should the average man or woman in the street give up their little pleasures when the government and big business are the biggest offenders?

The key message in that survey is that peope would only support highter taxes if the money was used to offset environmental damage.

At the moment, the air passenger duty raised just goes into the general coffers. It’s no wonder that people view these taxes as a money-making exercise that has nothing to do with the environment.

If you want to engage people, you have to show them that something tangible is being done with their money.

I can remember giving a substantial donation to the poor people whose lives were devastated by the tsunami and was disgusted to see that, several months later, the money had largely been trousered by opportunists and little had been done to help those who had been so badly affected. I’ll probably never give to a similar cause again.

Would you pay higher tax to offset carbon emmissions from ferries?

Guest Article by Jeremy Skidmore

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007