STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden plans to rejig take-off and landing fees for aircraft so that they correspond to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from different types of plane and fuel, the government said on Monday.
The plan would mean lower fees for newer, more efficient aircraft or those using bio-fuels and would cover both passenger and freight flights to and from Arlanda airport in Stockholm and Landvetter in Gothenburg, the government said, adding the move would be a world’s first.
“The airline industry has to show that it is taking the climate issue seriously and this is a way for politicians to push them and say that it is time they do their bit,” Environment Minister Per Bolund said in daily Dagens Nyheter.
The government said it would leave it up to the airports and the airline companies to agree how the system will work, but that the government was prepared to regulate if that failed.
Air travel by Swedes was responsible for around 10 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions in 2017 – around 1.1 tonnes per individual, research from Chalmers University of Technology showed.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Johan Ahlander)
