Mission Aviation Fellowship

European Union petition for international levy on Jet A1 fuel

The European Union (EU) lobbying for an international tax on Jet A1 fuel in a move to finance climate action via levies on polluting industries.

According to Wopke Hoekstra, EU’s climate commissioner, China, Zambia, Brazil and the Gulf nations are among those that have expressed interest in such a tax in talks leading up to the UN’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

Unlike other fuels, Jet A1 (kerosene) is exempt from tax throughout the world. The levy would be a way to generate “a substantial amount of money” with a “relatively small sum” charged per flight, Hoekstra said in an interview prior to the opening of COP28. It also had “an element of fairness to it because it is typically those from Europe and North America and other more affluent countries that fly more”.

Hoekstra said his plan at COP28 was “to not only test the waters but to talk about the why, the what and the how” of an aviation levy. “We tax everything alive, what we eat, when we work, and then at the last time when we die but not aviation, and that is off.”

Author: FTN Editor

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