(11 months, 4 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberThe DfT has published a jet zero strategy setting out the Government’s approach to delivering net-zero UK aviation by 2050. The strategy anticipates that a range of measures, including sustainable aviation fuels, zero-emission flights, carbon market measures and greater efficiencies in aircraft, airports and airspace will be require in tandem to achieve net zero by 2050.
My Lords, does the Minister believe that the principle of the polluter pays should apply to aviation, as it does across much of government policy, so that the cost of the emissions trading scheme, as well as the guaranteed prices for producers of sustainable fuels and the cost of an SAF mandate, should be paid by the airlines and, in turn, by the consumers who take the flights? This will not make flights exorbitantly expensive; it will ensure that the people who benefit from such transport bear the costs of it.
I thank the noble Baroness for that question. In fairness to the airlines, a number of industry projects within the UK seek to bring hydrogen-propelled aircraft, for example, into commercial service. Airbus has its ZEROe project, through which it intends to bring into commercial service the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035. Launched in 2022, its ZEROe demonstrator project will explore how hydrogen propulsion technology can be configured, and there are many other projects within the industry.
My Lords, as the chair of Feeding Britain, I wonder whether the Government could give us some advice. Over the last few weeks, we have been running out of food in our food banks and social supermarkets in 20 minutes. People who come in on later shifts do not get any food. What should we say to them when they ask why even this charity is in short supply, with so many people using it?
I take the noble Baroness’s point but can only repeat that we have to wait to see what the CPI is. The Government will make an announcement at the appropriate time.