Should premium passengers pay a £500 climate levy?
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
That's the plan being discussed at COP30, the UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil. France, Spain and Kenya want to see business class, first class and private jet passengers taxed much more heavily, with the money going to help less developed countries. The International Air Transport Association (Iata), representing the world's airlines, does not agree. I'm talking today to Thomas Reynaert, senior vice president for external affairs at Iata, about the COP30 plan – as well as air passengers’ rights rules and the impending UK budget.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Corden. It's Wednesday the 12th of November. |
| 0:07.1 | As you will know, the COP 30 Slime It Summit is taking place in Brazil. I've actually checked with the United Nations trying to find out how many staff they've sent and how they got there. |
| 0:19.0 | But a really interesting proposition from |
| 0:21.7 | Spain, France and Kenya is that there should be a surcharge of, I calculate about 500 pounds |
| 0:29.9 | on people travelling in business class, first class and on private jets. Many people would say |
| 0:37.1 | that seems perfectly reasonable. Private jets in |
| 0:39.7 | particular per person generate huge amounts of CO2 and people travelling in first or business class |
| 0:46.9 | are far more damaging than those of us in basic economy. But the International Air Transport Association disagrees, and I've been talking to |
| 0:57.7 | Thomas Raynard, he is Senior Vice President External Affairs. The tax which you just mentioned is being |
| 1:05.5 | discussed in the top 30s is actually counterproductive. And it's actually besides the question, |
| 1:09.8 | the real instrument to |
| 1:10.9 | get emissions down is Corcia, carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation, |
| 1:15.5 | and not just yet on all the tax. Because the principal of fortune is very much the same as we've |
| 1:19.6 | seen a lot of the so-called green taxes or ticker taxes. It's not going to resolve your emissions |
| 1:25.2 | problem. And so that I think was, or it should be the objective |
| 1:28.8 | when you discuss things at COP 30 is get emissions down. We have a solution. It's called |
| 1:32.6 | Garcia and I think let's stick to it. The airlines are committed. The industry is committed to |
| 1:36.9 | invest tons of money into it and it works. So let's stick to that. Almost a decade ago, |
| 1:42.5 | you were looking at air passenger rights reform in Europe. |
| 1:45.5 | Progress so far, if I'm not mistaken, is about zero. |
| 1:49.5 | EU 261, passenger rights is consumer issues, but EU 261 in particular is on the verge of being reformed. |
| 1:56.3 | We need to make sure that we have a balanced approach if we are talking about passenger rights. |
... |
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