Left-wing party United Podemos has proposed the creation of a Balearic tax on private jet emissions to compensate for the environmental damage caused by these aircraft.
Podemos’s Gloria Santiago, said today that “two hours of a private jet flight is equivalent to the emissions generated by one person in Spain throughout the year. It is time to put a stop to this, especially in a fragile territory like ours,” she said.
“Private jets are a means of private transport used exclusively by the richest 1% of the population. These people have more than enough money to pay a tax to compensate, in some way, for the almost irreversible damage they cause to the air quality of our islands and the environment in general. Private jets pollute ten times more than commercial flights,” warned Santiago.
PSIB-PSOE and Més per Mallorca, both members of the ruling coalition in the Balearics, have signed up to the proposal.
“The institutions must get to work to limit as much as possible this activity on our islands, especially in Ibiza, where the arrival of thousands of private jets airport poses a risk to our Balearic ecosystem and a global danger,” she said.
She also highlighted that “while the European Commission is asking citizens to make efforts to reduce pollution and meet emission reduction targets, the fuel used by private jets is exempt from taxation in most EU countries.