Spain and France go after mega-rich in huge changes to air travel rules

Daily Mirror

02-07-2025

France and Spain are among a group of countries that have pledged to tax premium flying and private jets.
In a bid to raise funds for climate action and sustainable development, the European nations along with Kenya and Barbados have committed to upping the levy.
It is not yet known how much the levy would be, with details of how the mechanism would work expected at the COP30 climate summit this November. However, in a report published on June 19, the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force estimated that these measures could 'generate substantial revenues' of up to €187 billion (£160 billion).
Changes in the national legislation of the countries involved is planned as soon as next year, Climate Home News reports.
Tensions erupt at UK's most exclusive billionaire's private jet fair
The initiative was launched at the UN Finance for Development summit in Seville, Spain. Representatives from governments, financial institutions, and civil society are attempting to determine how to channel more money towards efforts to tackle climate change, among other issues.
The coalition's goal is 'to increase the number of countries applying taxes on airline tickets, including for luxury travel, and to tax private jets based on best practices,' the French Élysée's said in a statement.
Sierra Leone, Benin, Antigua and Barbuda and Somalia, also backed the pledge, which will get technical support from the European Commission, the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force said in a separate statement.
Rebecca Newsom of Greenpeace told Reuters that the move was "an important step towards ensuring that the binge users of this undertaxed sector are made to pay their fair share". "Flying is the most elitist and polluting form of travel, so this is an important step toward ensuring heavy users of this undertaxed sector pay their fair share," she said.
The coalition on premium flying levies was born out of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, which launched in 2023. It has been looking for ways to raise new sources of finance for climate and development from sectors that contribute disproportionately to global carbon emissions, or those that are undertaxed, such as aviation, fossil fuels or financial transactions.
Friederike Röder, director of the task force's secretariat, told Climate Home that targeting aviation first is a 'very pragmatic' choice. 'It's something that can be put in place quite quickly, it makes sense economically speaking from a tax justice and climate perspective, and can generate a significant sum,' she said.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the coalition would 'work toward a greater contribution from the aviation sector' to improve 'climate resilience'.
Earlier this year, tensions flared at an ultra-luxury private jet fair when protesters unfurled banners and chanted for the abolition of billionaires.
Overall private aviation emissions increased by 46% between 2019-2023, with industry expectations of continued strong growth, according to one Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment study.
It also found that most of these small planes spew more heat-trapping carbon dioxide in about two hours of flying than the average person does in about a year.
In 2023, roughly a quarter million of the super wealthy, who were worth a total of $31 trillion, emitted 17.2 million tons (15.6 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide flying in private jets. That's about the same amount as the overall yearly emissions of the 67 million people who live in Tanzania.
Stefan Gossling, a transportation researcher at the business school of Sweden's Linnaeus University, said the issue wasn't so much the emissions, which remain a small part of those produced globally, but the lack of fairness.
'The damage is done by those with a lot of money and the cost is borne by those with very little money,' Gossling said. A separate report by Oxfam claimed that billionaires emit more carbon pollution in 90 minutes than the average person does in a lifetime.