Transcript:
Most people rarely – or never – take a flight. But a small number of elite travelers fly a lot – often in business class or even on private jets. And they have an outsized impact on the climate.
Röder: “It’s clearly something where not everyone around the world is contributing to the pollution.”
Friederike Röder is with the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force. It’s an initiative that’s developing new ways to raise money for climate adaptation projects – especially for efforts in low-income countries that suffer the most from climate change.
She says one promising approach is for countries to put a tax on tickets or fuel for premium air travel.
Röder: “What the initiative is targeting is really those flying the most, flying business class, first class, private jets. So not the persons that might take a flight once a year to see their family or to go on vacation.”
The task force helps coordinate a small but growing coalition of countries – including Spain, France, Kenya, and Nigeria – that have pledged to pursue the approach. And it’s working to get other countries on board.
Röder says it’s a way to help fund climate solutions by asking travelers generating the most climate-warming pollution to pay a greater share of the costs.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
