BRITAIN:British chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling's first budget statement, offering a change in tax on flights and a new fund for clean technology, drew criticism from climate campaigners yesterday.
They dismissed the measures as failing the government's commitments to battle the global warming crisis that it says is one of the biggest threats facing humankind. "This prebudget report falls well short of what is required to help tackle climate change," said Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper. "This was a golden opportunity for the chancellor to produce a range of green incentives to encourage people to go green. But yet again the government has not delivered."
Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the WWF welcomed the promise to end air-passenger duty in 2009 and switch to taxing flights instead, with the aim of discouraging airlines from flying aircraft with empty seats.
"A tax that penalises airlines for flying half-empty planes makes a lot of sense, but the government's support for the unrestrained expansion of UK airports seriously undermines its credibility," said Greenpeace director John Sauven.
The WWF's Keith Allott said: "this is a move in the right direction but needs to go far further to begin to curb the rate of increase in air travel."
A UK treasury official said: "the aim is to achieve a closer correlation between the tax take from the plane and the kind of carbon impact."