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UK government lets airlines off the hook for £300m air pollution bill

The government wrote off emissions equivalent to 400,000 passengers flying from London to Sydney and back in one year

By Lucas Amin and Ben Webster
UK government lets airlines off the hook for £300m air pollution bill
The government gave more than £300m worth of free ‘pollution permits’ to airlines in one year - Getty
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The government gave more than £300m worth of free ‘pollution permits’ to airline companies including British Airways, RyanAir and EasyJet under a scheme designed to tackle climate change.

The UK’s Emissions Trading Scheme is meant to reduce carbon emissions by forcing big polluters to buy a permit for each tonne of carbon they emit, with the money going into the public purse.

But data obtained by openDemocracy reveals the UK’s aviation sector was handed more than four million “pollution permits” last year, free of charge.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0