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The UK is paying the worst polluters to keep polluting. Here’s why

Step forward, the ‘Emissions Trading Scheme’ – which says we can’t possibly tax Air France in case it moves to Armenia

By Adam Ramsay
The UK is paying the worst polluters to keep polluting. Here’s why
Operators of long haul flights don’t need permits for the CO2 they emit. Nor do private jets or private yachts. Nor do firms that run incinerators, which are often more polluting than coal power stations | Getty
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The first week in July was the hottest week on record. Before that, we had the hottest June in history. May and June both broke sea temperature records. Billions across the planet are facing a summer of heatwaves, droughts and fires.

And yet the British government continues to coddle the people, and industries, driving us to devastation.

An extreme example, as openDemocracy revealed this week, is that the British government waived what would have been a £690,000 pollution ‘tax’ for the controversial Russian cargo airline Volga-Dnepr the day after the invasion of Ukraine. But that’s just part of a broader story.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0