A stupid and clumsy 'green' tax

Apparently the liberal democrat great and good have decided on a blanket 10 pound a flight "green tax".. wtf?!?

What an incredibly badly thought out idea. Last time I flew I paid a fiver 'airport development fee', then another tenner of airport and flight tax.
 
It's already taxed disproportionately, and of course it's no disincentive to using cheaper and/or older planes that pollute more heavily.

Why not just tax seats based on CO2 output and altitude? A modern small plane, with a economy seat configuration flying at a lower altitude does less damage than an old larger plane at a higher altitude.

The maths isn't that hard, you can also tax the fuel rather than the seats, as with cars - airlines have already taken a lot of measures to reduce fuel use (and therefore emissions), and increased tax on fuel will have a direct impact on emissions.

Charging a blanket tax gives no incentive to airlines to be more efficient and reduce emissions and no incentive to travellers to choose a flight with less emissions.

source : http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,2140998,00.html