'Green' airline tax proposed
2010-05-27 11:28
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Oslo - Billionaire investor George Soros said on Wednesday he proposed the creation of a $10bn-a-year "green fund" based on a 5% surcharge tax on air tickets to help poor countries fight climate change.
"I would like to see a very strong case for setting up a green fund of some sorts because we cannot rely on a carbon market to eventually (reduce carbon emissions)," said Soros before a conference on protecting forests.
"My hope is to find a source of revenue that would produce at least $10bn a year for that fund... The simplest and most effective way would be a surcharge on airline tickets."
Soros, who is a member of a UN panel on climate financing, said a 5% surcharge applied globally could generate some $20bn.
"Half would be kept by the countries that collect it and the other half would be contributed to the global green fund," he said.
Soros added that he was confident there would be strong international support for such a tax.
"The French already do it. I think that if one could show what it would achieve, it could generate the political will to have it," he said.
The best model for the green fund would be the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Soros said, as it "works very effectively".