This morning at 8.30am 15 members of Extinction Rebellion Ōtautahi held banners reading “BAN FREQUENT FLYER SCHEMES” and “TAX FREQUENT FLYERS” at the regional Air New Zealand Koru lounge inside Christchurch airport.

They were taking action as part of the global Make Them Pay campaign [1] to confront the climate injustice of aviation and call out the rich and powerful for their luxury emissions.

“It is time to ban frequent flyer schemes and tax frequent flyers to the ground. We cannot allow the rich to sacrifice our present and future safety in the pursuit of their luxury lifestyles". Said Extinction Rebellion Ōtautahi Anthony Field

The campaign, supported by Scientist Rebellion, Extinction Rebellion, and Stay Grounded, unites citizens and scientists from around the globe behind three demands. These are to ban private jets, tax frequent flyers, and to make polluters pay.

1% of the global population produces over a half of total aviation emissions [2], while 80% of the global population have never even set foot on a plane [3].

“Frequent flyers should not be rewarded for their higher emissions, instead there should be an increasing tax applied to those who fly further and more frequently than others - in other words, a frequent frequent flyer levy.” Said Sara Campbell [4].

Sara Campbell from Extinction Rebellion Ōtautahi says “There has been a lot of greenwashing recently about Air New Zealand investing in the research and development of unproven future technologies, but mostly this is a delaying tactic to try to avoid reducing emissions now. If Air New Zealand were serious about reducing emissions they would stop rewarding and incentivising frequent flying.”

She says “aviation fuel and frequent flyers should be taxed and the proceeds from this tax should be used to finance alternatives like regional passenger rail, and also climate reparations to those most affected by the climate crisis, who are also the least responsible.”

The Least Developed Countries (LDC) group, representing the most climate-vulnerable countries at COP27, also proposed a global aviation tax in order to pay for climate 'loss & damage' funds for their countries [5]. Studies show that we could raise in excess of $100 billion a year this way [6].

Rebecca Finch from Extinction Rebellion Ōtautahi said "I am a counsellor and want the world to be more equitable. There is no doubt that the energy consumption habits of the wealthy across the globe are rapidly accelerating climate destruction. These hyper-consumptive behaviours must change if we are to slow down harm from warming. In Aotearoa/NZ, recent flooding in Tamaki Makaurau caused 4 deaths. Making frequent flyers pay and cancelling frequent flyer schemes is a sensible policy to encourage the culpable wealthy to put the common good first."

This campaign is a call to action, with follow-up protests to be expected in the upcoming months.

Media contact:

Extinction Rebellion Ōtautahi Spokesperson

Sara Campbell ph: 0211218856

Folder of photos / videos:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OLVuipyh6JhCZpZqrk_vBfexQwBBjw6X?usp=sharing

*REFERENCES

[1] “Make Them Pay” campaign website: https://makethempay.info/

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020307779

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/17/people-cause-global-aviation-emissions-study-covid-19

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/07/boeing-ceo-80-percent-of-people-never-flown-for-us-that-means-growth.html

[4] Explanation of Frequent Flyer Levy policy: https://afreeride.org/

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/19/vulnerable-countries-demand-global-tax-to-pay-for-climate-led-loss-and-damage

[6] https://neweconomics.org/2021/07/a-frequent-flyer-levy

FURTHER INFORMATION:

‘In the UK, 70% of flights are made by a wealthy 15% of the population, with 57% not flying abroad at all.

There are calls for a frequent flyer levy - a tax that increases the more you fly each year.

Greenpeace supports the tax and also wants air miles banned because they say it encourages frequent flying’

.https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56582094

‘Dutch border police arrested hundreds of climate activists who stormed Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and sat in front of the wheels of aircraft to prevent them from leaving.’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/05/climate-activists-storm-amsterdam-airport-and-block-private-jets

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