G8 summit, climate change and airfares.

This news story struck me as being a little on the bizarre side, finance ministers from the G8 agreeing to look at a proposal to use income from airline traffic to boost aid for Africa while at the same time making a gesture towards fighting climate change.

The tax may only amount to a few pence on a ticket, but given the amount of airline tickets sold throughout the world i imagine it could add up to a fair amount of money. If this money was to manage to make it's way into improving the infrastructure of African nations where there are real problems then all to the good. In itself it isn't going to solve Africas problems and even less likely to have an impact on climate change.

I'm highly cynical of previous attempts by the western world to help Africa, the way in which the WTO and World Bank has been used has been disatrious for those that have followed their reccomendations. Economies restructured to help finance debt that has been allowed to spiral out of control. There are many countries that have paid back far in excess of the original loans and yet still heavily in debt. Food shortages because farmers have had to grow cash crops to sell abroad for a pittance rather to generate income to finance debt rather than growing crops that could feed the population. So i suppose i should be encouraged by the prospect of debt cancellation being on the agenda rather than just more loans with strings attached as a means of helping to resolve some of the African continents problems.

As for climate change, well that doesn't look likely to be helped by any international agreements just now, the USA the worlds largest economy and largest polluter isn't on the same wavelength as a those that signed up to the Kyoto protocol. Neither it seems is China or India, two rather large nations that are major energy users and only likely to increase in the near future. So i'm not convinced that a few pence on airline tickets is going to make any noticeable difference. It has been argued that the industry is so cut throat and profit margins wafer thin that it could be a disaster for the industry, yet if the tax is equitable across the board no one company should suffer any real harm. At the budget end of the market, a price hike of a dirt cheap ticket from £5 to £5.50 or even £6 isn't going to deter the budget passenger. So a few pence on the pricier tickets should be even less noticeable.

Given that a gesture towards controlling climate change is being used to justify this tax and that it seems a spurious one, certainly on first impression, it does beg the question why the aviation industry only? Is the aviation industry to be targeted as the only source of revenue to help improve conditions in Africa and potentialy other impoverished countries? Why not the oil industry or other hugely profitable industries? The pharmaceutical industry is apparantly the most profitable industry there is, now when you consider the problems African nations have had getting thew right to buy cheaper generic drugs to battle HIV/AIDs, it surely seems more fitting that they also should face a similar tax to help the continent?