Charity calls for tax hike on super yachts and private jets to hit polluters

17 September 2023 , 23:01

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Campaigners want a crackdown on luxury travel by private plane (Image: Instagram)

"Fair” taxes on fossil fuel companies and the “extremely rich” could have raised an extra £23billion for public coffers, Oxfam claims today. The charity says the cash could have been used to boost renewable energy and insulate homes, slashing UK carbon emissions.

Its latest report - Payment Overdue, Fair ways to make polluters across the UK pay for climate justice - insists that by targeting those Oxfam “holds most responsible for emissions”, the Government could “quickly and fairly secure much-needed funds to help tackle the climate crisis while ensuring the burden does not fall on ordinary UK households”. Revenue raising measures outlined in the study include a revamped, excess profits tax on fossil fuel companies; a frequent flyer levy; new taxes on private jets and super yachts; and ringfencing 20% of funds from a wealth tax.

Oxfam’s climate change policy advisor Lyndsay Walsh said: “While the world struggles to meet the rising costs of climate change and the UK increasingly looks to a dwindling aid budget to finance escalating global needs, billionaires are amassing yet more wealth and fossil fuel producers are reaping billions in profits. It is people who are least responsible for the crisis who are currently bearing the brunt of climate change - facing poverty, hunger and ever more scarce resources.”

She added: “Fossil fuel companies and the richest people who have done most to cause – and continue to cause – irreversible damage to our planet could and should be the ones footing the bill. It is crucial that any measures to raise new finance shield lower-income households from the costs.”

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