UK Citizens Tell Govt To Tax Frequent Fliers

A new citizens assembly has made a raft of suggestions to clean up the environment and help the government lead on climate change. The group of 108 Brits have put together a report with some solutions for the country’s leading politicians to chew on ahead of what are sure to be some tough climate decisions over the coming years. Amongst the suggestions are a tax on frequent flyers, a ban on SUVs, a pause of road-building and using the pandemic to cut carbon emissions. The assembly also want equality on climate policies to ensure that the poorest in society are not punished. The so-called citizens assembly was set up by a handful of government committees which have been set-up to scrutinise political decisions. It is hoped that some of the more controversial ideas could receive more widespread backing as they were proposed by the public rather than the government. Education on climate change appears to have been one of the key themes of the assembly, with Ibrahim a GP from Surrey saying ignorance is costing the environment: “The media has to take a role - schools as well. We perhaps need to look at the curriculum. “You can’t go to someone and say ‘you need to switch to the hydrogen boiler because it’s low CO2’ but they have no idea [about it]. You’re more likely to get a buy-in from people when they know about the issues.” The suggestions, which have been published on the BBC News website include other plans such as making businesses use less energy and materials, asking people to repair goods and sharing their appliances and use more offshore and onshore wind and solar energy. “This is a striking tribute to the common sense of the British public,” Tom Burke from e3g told bbc.co.uk: “There is a clear lesson for politicians and editors across the political spectrum about the role our citizens are capable of playing in shaping public policy.”