Scottish Greens to propose £1,000 per head private jet ‘super tax’

Craig Paton, PA Scotland Deputy Political Editor
·1 min read

The Scottish Greens are set to propose a £1,000-per-head private jet tax in the party’s manifesto.

The document, due to be released this week, will include the measure in a bid to reduce the number of private flights, as well as removing tax breaks on aviation fuel and phasing out short-haul flights.

Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater pledged “bold plans” to cut the number of aircraft taking off.

Lorna Slater
Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater pledged ‘bold’ plans in the party’s manifesto (Jane Barlow/PA)

“We are in a climate emergency, with the evidence all around us. It is obscene that a small number of very wealthy people are jetting around the globe in climate wrecking private jets,” she said.

“There is absolutely no justification for something so needless and destructive, not when the stakes are so high and the consequences are so severe.

“By introducing a super tax on these flights we can cut the number of jets in our sky and ensure that those who are polluting our planet are paying for the damage they are doing.”

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Damage at Yukon's Eagle mine site could be 'worst-case scenario,' says local mayor

    The mayor of Mayo, Yukon, says a heap leach failure and slide reported Monday at the Eagle gold mine will have a "huge impact" on his community, and the territory as a whole. Mayor Trevor Ellis said he's shocked by the incident which has indefinitely halted operations at the mine."'Catastrophic' would probably be, from what I'm hearing, would probably be a good way to describe it," he said of the incident.Few details about what happened and the extent of the damage at Victoria Gold's mine site h

  • Rescued bald eagle is huge, but why isn’t its head white?

    The young raptor, found with a broken femur near a popular Tennessee lake, underwent surgery Friday.

  • A big boost for a climate solution: electricity made from the heat of the Earth

    One method of making electricity cleanly to address climate change has been quietly advancing and on Tuesday it hit a milestone.

  • Woman 'Seriously Injured' After Being Mauled by Wolves at Zoo in France

    A Paris woman was attacked by Arctic wolves while out for a run at the Thoiry ZooSafari in France and sustained bites to her neck, leg and back

  • A new carbon removal plant will absorb carbon dioxide 99,000 times faster than Earth's oceans

    Cutting greenhouse gas emissions isn't enough. We have to start sucking CO2 from the atmosphere and companies like Equatic are leading the charge.

  • The ‘world’s largest mammal migration’ happens here every year. War means no one knows about it

    New research shows that more than 5 million antelope cross South Sudan each year – blowing the world-famous Serengeti migration out of the water.

  • This DIY brick sauna is helping frogs fight disease

    Wedged into the tiny holes of masonry bricks, which heat their bodies up to near 30 C, you might think Australian green and golden bell frogs would be uncomfortable.But new research says the amphibians love it, and that these DIY dry saunas — made with spray-painted bricks housed in plastic greenhouses — could give them an edge in fighting a deadly fungus."This is really exciting," said Anthony Waddle, a biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and lead author of the new study pub

  • Gassy cows and pigs will face a carbon tax in Denmark, a world first

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark will tax livestock farmers for the greenhouse gases emitted by their cows, sheep and pigs from 2030, the first country to do so as it targets a major source of methane emissions, one of the most potent gases contributing to global warming.

  • Protecting 1.2% of Earth would prevent most extinctions, study says

    Setting aside an additional 1.2% of the world's land as nature preserves would prevent the majority of predicted plant and animal extinctions and cost about $263 billion, according to a study published on Tuesday. The study in the journal Frontiers in Science aimed to identify the highest value areas in hope that they be included in those protection plans, said Carlos Peres, a study co-author and conservation ecology expert at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. The study's proposed protections would cover an additional 1.6 million square km (633,000 square miles) - an area about a fifth the size of the United States - across 16,825 sites globally that are home to rare and threatened species.

  • Wolf Shows Playful Interest in Grizzly Bear's Meal

    A wolf seemed super keen to get a piece of a bison carcass from a grizzly bear, footage by a nature photographer in Yellowstone National Park shows, but the bear seemed unimpressed by its antics as it bounced around.Trevor LaClair said he filmed the scene in April 2023, when the bear pulled the carcass from a frozen pond.“Two of the wolves approached the grizzly. One of the wolves got too close and the bear lunged at it as a warning. However, the wolf viewed it as an opportunity to potentially lure the bear away and began play bowing and bouncing around,” LaClair wrote on Instagram.“After a while, the grey wolf gave up and laid down nearby, waiting patiently for a piece of meat,” LaClair added. The grizzly eventually left and the wolves were able to get their turn.According to the National Wildlife Federation, a wolf will dance and bow if it is feeling playful. Credit: Trevor LaClair via Storyful

  • Why are the northern lights sometimes pink?

    Stream Good Question, Saskatchewan on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. If someone asked you to draw a picture of the northern lights, what colour crayon would you reach for?"They probably start with green," said Daniel Billett, a postdoctoral fellow in space physics at the University of Saskatchewan.Billett said green is the most commonly seen colour in the aurora borealis.But Cindy Sherban and her family were wondering why hues of pink and purple will sometimes dance across the sky

  • I explored the ruins of an abandoned zoo on the coast of Florida, and it was completely overrun by nature

    Crandon Park Zoo was abandoned after hurricanes ravaged the beach and drowned animals. Today, wildlife like alligators and peacocks live in the park.

  • Bird flu spreads to tenth Australian poultry farm

    A highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza has spread to an eighth poultry farm near Melbourne, the government of Australia's Victoria state said on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected facilities in the country to 10. Australia is dealing with three parallel outbreaks of bird flu, two near Melbourne and one near Sydney. Each involves a different strain of the virus, none of which is the H5N1 type that has spread through bird and mammal populations and even to humans around the world.

  • A potential Trump VP pick backs a controversial CO2 pipeline favored by the Biden White House

    BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is one of Donald Trump’s most visible and vocal backers, sprinting around the country to drum up support for the former president’s comeback bid while auditioning to be his running mate.

  • Entangled right whale calf spotted in Gulf of St. Lawrence, DFO says

    HALIFAX — Canadian officials say a North Atlantic right whale has been spotted entangled in fishing gear in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

  • Garbage dumps may be ‘burping’ toxic ‘forever chemicals’: Study

    As many municipal landfills belch out gas from decomposing organic matter, they are also releasing toxic “forever chemicals” into the air, a new study has found. Scientists measured unexpectedly high levels of airborne per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at three dumps they surveyed — demonstrating the ability of these persistent contaminants to escape into the…

  • Watch: San Diego Zoo celebrates birth of endangered Baird's tapir

    The San Diego Zoo announced the birth of a female Baird's tapir, an endangered animal native to Mexico and Central America.

  • Alberta regulator projects 17 per cent growth in oilsands production by 2033

    CALGARY — The regulator responsible for overseeing Alberta's oil and gas sector has released a new report projecting the province's oilsands production will grow by more than 17 per cent by 2033.

  • Zoo announces death of UK's 'oldest gorilla'

    Paignton Zoo announces the death of silverback Pertinax at the age of 42.

  • South Sudan says its 6M antelope make up world’s largest land mammal migration, but poaching on rise

    Seen from the air, they ripple across the landscape — a river of antelope racing across the vast grasslands of South Sudan in what conservationists say is the world's largest land mammal migration. The country's first comprehensive aerial wildlife survey, released Tuesday, found about 6 million antelope. The estimate from the nonprofit African Parks, which conducted the work along with the government, far surpasses other large migratory herds such as the estimated 1.36 million wildebeests surveyed last year in the Serengeti straddling Tanzania and Kenya.