Intergenerational Foundation calls for ban on UK domestic flights, where train takes under 4.5 hours
Banning UK domestic flights on routes with fast rail connections that take under four and a half hours, could substantially cut the UK’s CO2 emissions from domestic aviation by a third, a report by the Intergenerational Foundation has found. In 2019 the emissions from domestic flights were about 2.7 million tonnes of CO2 (all UK aviation was about 39.6 million tonnes). The 2.7 million tonnes is about the same as energy to power 700,000 UK homes for a year. If all the flights with a rail alternative of under 4.5 hours (excluding to Northern Ireland) were substituted by rail travel, something like 880,000 tonnes of CO2 might be saved per year. A similar ban on domestic flights, where there is a rail alternative taking under 2.5 hours, was introduced in France in April this year. For many of the UK journeys, there would be little disruption to passengers. Often the train on these journeys takes about the same time, (sometimes less) city centre to city centre, or only a little longer than by plane. The problem remains that rail travel is often more expensive then by air, though cheap tickets are often available. Domestic air travel currently pays £13 Air Passenger Duty one way (£26 return) but this will be halved after April 2023. It also pays no VAT or fuel duty.
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TAKING TRAINS OVER PLANES COULD CUT BRITAIN’S DOMESTIC AVIATION EMISSIONS IN HALF
12.10.2022 (Intergenerational Foundation press release)
Banning domestic passenger flights for journeys with viable train routes of under four-and-a-half hours would cut Great Britain’s emissions from domestic aviation in half, according to a new report published today by the Intergenerational Foundation think tank.
The report, entitled “Trains over Planes: why the government should encourage domestic train travel”, also found that almost a third of journeys are as fast or faster by train as they are by aeroplane, with almost two-thirds taking less than 30 minutes extra by train.
Angus Hanton, IF Co-Founder, comments, “We are all aware of the risks posed by climate change, and reducing domestic flights is one way in which we can significantly reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Banning domestic flights with a viable alternative by train would be a faster route to our Net Zero targets and a small but important contribution to protecting future generations from the effects of climate change.”
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and author of the report’s foreword, added, “The public understand that flying harms the environment but they need policy support to help encourage them out of planes and onto trains. If the French can ban domestic flights with a rail equivalent so too can the United Kingdom.”
Domestic aviation was responsible for emitting 2.7 megatonnes of CO2 and CO2 equivalents in 2019. [About 39.6 million tonnes from all UK aviation in 2019 – CCC data ]However, almost two-thirds (62%) of CO2 emissions from UK domestic flights in 2019 were between cities linked by the rail network, and are potentially replaceable by rail travel.
Some inter-city travel across England, Wales and Scotland is actually faster by train. he report found that the Newcastle-London and Manchester-London routes have faster city-centre to city-centre travel by train than by aeroplane.
See report P. 28 for better quality image.
https://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Trains_over_planes_FINAL.pdf
The report calls for the government to ban domestic flights on routes that could be travelled by rail in 4.5 hours or less. The think tank calculates that this would result in a 53% reduction in CO2 emissions from domestic flights within Great Britain and a 33% reduction in CO2 emissions from all of UK domestic aviation.
Travelling by aeroplane is seven times more harmful in terms of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions than travelling by train. The Intergenerational Foundation think tank argues that the negative environmental effects of domestic aviation are not reflected in air fares, and that successive governments have failed to adequately tax air fuel and passengers according to the “polluter pays” principle.
Tax reforms on aviation could also raise money for government investment in green technology and affordable travel: the report says that levying fuel duty on aviation kerosene and replacing Air Passenger Duty with VAT would have seen the Treasury receive up to £478 million more in 2019.
The report also urges the government to end taxpayer subsidies for domestic aviation, do more to encourage passengers to travel by train, and to increase the capacity on high-demand rail routes.
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– Ends –
Notes to editors:
Further statistics:
- Travel by train is seven times more environmentally friendly than flying.
- UK domestic aviation emitted 2.7Mt of CO2 in 2019: This is equivalent to the annual emissions of 1.7 million typical UK petrol cars or the gas and electricity use of 700,000 UK homes.
- Fuel used for road transport is subject to fuel duty at 57.95p per litre with VAT being levied at 20% on the after-tax price of fuel. Diesel used for passenger rail travel is zero-rated for VAT but is subject to fuel duty of 11.14p per litre, the rebated gas oil (red diesel) rate.
- Domestic airlines pay no fuel duty on kerosene (jet fuel) and tickets are zero-rated for VAT.
- The only direct tax paid by the aviation sector is Air Passenger Duty (APD) which currently stands at £13 per ticket for domestic flights. This will be further reduced to £6.50 for domestic journeys in 2023.
https://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Trains-over-planes_press-release_FINAL.pdf
The Intergenerational Foundation (www.if.org.uk) is an independent, non-partypolitical charity that exists to protect the rights of younger and future generations in British policy-making. While increasing longevity is to be welcomed, our changing national demographic and expectations of entitlement are placing increasingly heavy burdens on younger and future generations. From housing, health and education, to employment, taxation, pensions, voting, spending and environmental degradation, younger generations are under increasing pressure to maintain the intergenerational compact while losing out disproportionately to older, wealthier cohorts. IF questions this status quo, calling instead for sustainable long-term policies that are fair to all – the old, the young, and those to come.
Banning flights on UK routes with fast rail links ‘could cut flight emissions by third’
Trains over Planes report says disruption to commuters would be minimal
By Yasmeen Louis (The Guardian)
Wed 12 Oct 2022
Banning flights on routes with fast rail connections could cut the UK’s emissions from domestic aviation by a third, a report has found.
The report by the thinktank Intergenerational Foundation (IF) found that domestic aviation was responsible for the emission of 2.7 megatonnes of CO2 in 2019 alone – the equivalent of the annual emissions from 1.7 million petrol cars or the energy to power 700,000 UK homes for a year.
If domestic flights on routes with a rail alternative under 4.5 hours were banned, the authors say it would reduce emissions by 885 kilotonnes – a 33% reduction. The reduction rises to 53% when only taking Great Britain into account, as there are no rail links between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The authors of the report call for a domestic flight ban policy similar to the one implemented in France earlier this year. In April, France became the first country to implement a nationwide short-haul flight ban where alternative trains under 2.5 hours were available.
The disruption to commuters, would be minimal, the report suggests, as for two-thirds of passengers travelling between city centres, taking the train adds less than 30 minutes to their journey compared with flying, while almost a third of journeys are as fast or faster by train.
Angus Hanton, from IF, said: “Now is the moment to challenge the unnecessary use of aviation fuel. This new, un-green government wants to use the current cost of living crisis as an excuse to keep people in planes rather than them taking the eco-option of train travel.”
IF says affected routes would only be 14 minutes longer on average by rail than by air, and would be of comparable price when rail journeys were booked in advance.
Other policies recommended by the report called for similar action to be taken to reduce domestic flights, including removing the millions of free pollution permits given to the aviation industry every year, introducing incentives for passengers to travel by train, and revoking tax breaks currently granted to the domestic aviation sector.
Alethea Warrington, a campaigner at climate charity Possible, said: “Travelling by train rather than plane is one of the best things people can do to help tackle the climate crisis. It’s ridiculous that the government refuses to adequately support our rail network, and yet freely hands airlines tax breaks which push unnecessary domestic flights.
“It’s time to get rid of domestic flights and start taxing frequent flying and aircraft fuel. Then we can invest in the efficient, affordable and climate-friendly rail network we so desperately need.”
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See earlier:
France: domestic short-haul flights to be banned where train takes under 2.5 hours
The French government has become the first large economy to ban short-haul flights where a train or bus alternative of two and a half hours or less exists. This was voted on in 2021 and came into effect in April 2022. The intention is to reduce the country’s aviation CO2 emissions and might have the effect of eliminating 12% of French domestic flights, such as those between Paris to cities such as Bordeaux, Nantes or Lyon. In 2021, the French government bailed out Air France with €7 billion after suffering Covid losses, and it made the condition that the airline become more environmental conscious. The government asked other airlines to do the same, as the absence of Air France flights might offer low-cost carriers an opportunity to move in and offer the same flights. And the French government does not want Air France to be undercut, on international routes from Paris, by other airlines if too many domestic links are removed. Eurocontrol found flights shorter than 311 miles made up 31% of European flights in 2020 yet contributed just over 4% of the EU’s total aviation emissions. And EU flights over 2,485 miles, for which alternative train travel is less feasible, made up 6% of all flights, but produced 52% of emissions. So the French move will have little CO2 impact.
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