During the meeting of G7 finance ministers in London, EU Finance Council President Jean-Claude Juncker admitted that the EU is considering introducing an EU tax on kerosene, the fuel used by the aviation industry.
In the context of a discussion on debt relief for the world's poorest countries, the G7 finance ministers brainstormed on the use of special taxes to find new development aid funding. As the idea of a Tobin tax on international securities transactions (proposed by France) was a taboo subject for some countries, the attention turned to the possibility of taxing global aviation.
The idea of a kerosene tax on aviation was originally proposed by the Greens as a way of dealing with increasing air traffic and its implications of the environment and climate change. Germany and France gave its backing to the kerosene tax proposal recently. It seems unlikely that the proposal would get a global majority. The United States and the UK are very much opposed to the introduction of such a new taxation.
