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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

No, I am not talking about using a price mechanism. I am talking about using a system that constrains the volume of movements and requires the industry to take responsibility for its own carbon reductions. The alternative is to hold to the idea that aviation will somehow be transformed by being included in the emissions trading system. I invite Members to look at the last page of the aviation White Paper. Its authors give an estimate of the impact that carbon pricing will have on their flight projections. For reference, today’s carbon price is €1.6 per tonne. In the aviation White Paper, the industry asks itself what the effect will be on flight projections if the price rises from 70p to £140 per tonne by 2030. Its own estimate is that that will reduce total passenger flights from 455 million to 445 million—a reduction of 10 million, which is next to nothing. That is why I urge the Government to look at a carbon miles quota system, rather than a carbon trading system. We should be brave enough to take steps that radically engage with the world in which our children are going to be asked to live. That means having the humility to address some of the things that we have tried to do that simply did not work, and to accept that it was worth trying to do them, even though they did not work. I turn to my last bit of advice to the Government. There are two ideas that have been somewhat popular with the Government in the past couple of years, and we need to address them in considering what we will decide not to continue with. First, we need to say that there is no place for carbon offsetting in an agenda that seeks to deliver our own carbon reductions. Anyone who reads in order to understand this issue should not go into the detail of carbon offsetting schemes; instead, they should consult a website called cheatneutral.com, which invites people to offset their infidelity.