Earth cannot ‘sustain’ intensive fossil fuel use, Lula tells COP30

LUXURY FLIGHT TAX

The absence of leaders from the world’s biggest polluters, including the United States, where President Donald Trump has dismissed climate science as a “con job,” cast a shadow over talks, but also catalysed calls for greater mobilisation.

France, Spain and Kenya are among a group of countries spearheading a drive at the COP30 climate summit for a new tax on luxury air travel, rooted in the idea that the small elite of premium flyers should pay more for their outsized contribution to global warming.

“It is only fair that those who have more and pollute more should pay their fair share,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the summit. 

“We want to expand the coalition and, in particular, bring in more European states,” a source told AFP.

The proposal is sure to face headwinds from the aviation sector, responsible for about 2.5 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.