Branson says airlines should pay tax on emissions

GENEVA — Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson told a forum on climate change Tuesday that aviation is a dirty business and that airlines should be willing to pay for the damage they cause to the environment.

The airline industry has been reluctant to support carbon-emission taxes but Branson said at the Global Humanitarian Forum that he was willing to pay carbon-emissions taxes on his aviation business.

"If you run a dirty business — an airline business, a shipping business, ... coal business, you should pay for the privilege because you are doing damage," Branson said.

The head of the forum, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, also pushed for what he called "climate justice," with polluters paying for the damage they cause.

"We must recognize that the polluter must pay, and not the poor and vulnerable," Annan said. "We must have climate justice."

Low-cost airlines last week called on the European Union to reject a plan that would force air carriers to trade pollution allowances, saying it risks turning potential environmental benefits into punitive fees for air carriers and passengers.

The two-day meeting of the new humanitarian forum brings together aid agencies, governments and the private sector to address the "human face of climate change."

Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom suggested the proceeds of aviation taxes on carbon emissions be transferred to small nations to put in place measures for adapting to climate change.

The Maldives, which consist of 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean, have said they risk losing their entire territory to rising sea levels if global warming continues unabated.

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