On a serious note, quite simply, there are already far too many humans on this planet, each of which on average, consumes too much resource.

Not really, the idea it’s a population problem places the burden of responsibility on the developing world. It says – “I could continue with my lifestyle if it wasn’t for the pesky brown people having too many children”.

The problem with the argument is that westerners often have a 5 to 10 times higher carbon footprint.

Why aren’t the government already:-

Starting to further ramp up taxes on petrol and diesel to subsidise greener infrastructure?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_protests_in_the_United_Kingdom

8.5 degrees or 1.5 degrees, if you live in Bangladesh you’re still ****.

When it comes to fuel tax, there’s already plenty at the pump for most of us…

The odd thing is, aviation and shipping fuel is tax free!

After attending the #ClimateStrike yesterday, I decided to start a petition

More and more people are becoming aware of the Climate Emergency, but currently, there is no tax on fuel used for Aviation or Shipping.

This is the same the world over.

Why Tax Aviation and Shipping Fuel?

Currently the fossil fuels industry is massively subsidized, often by indirect methods such as tax breaks, which help keep these subsidies off the balance sheets

The money raised could be used to fund renewable energy and transport, speeding the transition to a sustainable future.

While emissions of some pollutants from road transport have gone down in general (although not carbon dioxide), emissions from aviation and shipping continue to rise.

Aviation activities, including flights but also airports themselves put a number of negative pressures on the environment, including greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants, noise pollution, water demand and waste generation.

Within the EU greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation have more than doubled since 1990.

Shipping activities also lead to significant emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants, noise and water pollution.

By 2050, global aviation and shipping are together expected to contribute almost 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions unless further mitigation actions are taken.

Why are Emissions from Aviation and Shipping increasing?

We have observed a globalisation of trade over recent decades and both aviation and shipping have seen tremendous growth. This has led to a steady increase in emissions.

The number of air passengers in Europe and globally, for example, has tripled since 1990.

Another example is increased trade with emerging economies, which results in longer travel distances.

bigmountainscotland well done on setting up a petition but wondered whether there was any reason for not setting it up via the Government and Parliament Petitions website?

As we saw from the climate strike yesterday, this is a global issue; I’ve addressed the petition appropriately to reflect that…

When it comes to fuel tax, there’s already plenty at the pump for most of us…

Disagree strongly. Stopping the Fuel Price Escalator was (and is) the kind of short term populist nonsense that we need kids to call us voters and our politicians out for.

But by contrast, you’re entirely happy with the fact that there is no tax on Aviation and Shipping Fuel?

As we saw from the climate strike yesterday, this is a global issue; I’ve addressed the petition appropriately to reflect that…

Thank you bigmountainscotland

But by contrast, you’re entirely happy with the fact that there is no tax on Aviation and Shipping Fuel?

No. Although there are more effective ways to tax flying to try and arrest the rate of increase in use.

Regarding protests if fuel tax is increased….
Why can’t the hauliers just increase their prices accordingly? This protects them from a short term shock.
In the long term will this not drive consumers to buy more local produce and have less stuff moving about?
I guess in the long term it will also shrink the haulage sector too but they will have more time to prepare accordingly.

A classified section on here would be good

There’s a big disparity here… even if fuel prices were to increase in the UK, it wouldn’t make that much difference in the bigger scheme of things; don’t forget the price of fuel in North America for example is around 1/2 what it is here… hence the bigger engines (and bigger per capita emissions)

By contrast, Aviation and Maritime fuel is Tax Free all over the world; speaking of all over the world, it’s basically subsidising transport of the majority of the consumer tat that chokes the oceans and ends up in landfill.

For the gammons out there, it also means industry is being outsourced… thanks to subsidised international transport, those dirty foreigners are taking our jobs overseas!!

Start taxing aviation and maritime fuel and there is a very easy way to get around that. The only people we would be hurting would be ourselves, meanwhile the rest of the world will continue to sell any old shit* as bunker fuel.

*I honestly mean that, heavy fuel needs to be kept above 90odd Celcius or it sets like tar, bloody awful stuff and full of the crap already pumped out of sludge tanks depending where you go. Oh and petrol is not petrol depending where you go, in the likes of Indonesia and the Philippines you would be lucky to see 50% refined fuel landed ashore never mind at the pump.

Ah, so essentially what you’re saying is they use the filthiest left overs to fuel ships as it doesn’t have to comply with clean air regulations…

Is it true that ships often switch fuels before coming in to dock, so as to bring their emmissions down to an acceptable level?

Was anyone else hoping she’d run over and punch him in the balls?