THE ABOLITION OF the air-travel tax hasn’t pleased everybody. An Taisce has predicted that it will soon have to be re-instated to combat climate change.
When it was first introduced in 2009 the tax on flights out of the country was €10, it was then reduced to €3 before the current Government announced in the Budget earlier this month that it will be abolished from April 2014.
But the independent environmental charity An Taisce has said that removal of the tax “doesn’t make long-term sense” because the global climate change situation is becoming “even more alarming”.
The group cites a recent report from a UN intergovernmental panel which said that it was 95 per cent convinced that humans have caused over half the global warming observed over the past 60 years.
An Taisce say that air travel is by far the most carbon intensive form of transport per passenger kilometre travelled:
The recent IPCC report stated that there is now only a 50-50 chance of avoiding runaway temperature rise. Airline chiefs can try and dress this issue up whatever way they like, but there are choices to be made between foreign holidays today and a sustainable future for the next generation.
An Taisce say that these choices must include becoming less dependent on air travel by increasing overland links with Britain with greater sail-and-rail options for Irish travellers.
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