Climate activist Donnachadh McCarthy did not hold back in a frosty row on GB News with travel journalist Simon Calder, as he suggested the frequent flyer is responsible for tonnes of emissions.
He hit out at Calder’s career choices amid new calls for the world’s richest to pay a new ‘climate tax’ after it was revealed those in the top one per cent of earners emitted as much carbon in 2019 as the poorest 65 per cent.
Speaking on GB News, McCarthy took aim at a frequent contributor to the People’s Channel, Simon Calder, who often appears to give travellers tips and tricks for their upcoming holidays.
But the climate activist had little time for Calder’s advice and instead launched a personal attack at the journalist.
The row broke out on GB News
GB NEWS
“I’m afraid, Simon [Calder], you have made a career for years out of promoting flying”, he said.
“I don’t understand how you can look at the next generation’s eyes and know how much carbon your paper and comms have encouraged people to commit.”
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Calder defended himself by claiming he is “not encouraging” people to fly and would instead urge Britons to look closer to home when picking a holiday destination.
He told McCarthy: “I would much rather we all travelled to Europe on railways.
“But because the railway system is so useless and expensive, if you want to get to the south of Spain, you would be far better off flying.
“That’s a problem that needs to be addressed. I am perfectly happy to work with anybody who can talk to me about decarbonising air transport.”
Simon Calder and Donnachadh McCarthy joined Anne Diamond and Stephen Dixon on GB News
GB NES
Speaking about the prospect of charging frequent flyers a climate tax, Calder said he is sceptical of ever seeing it imposed.
“There is a serious question to be asked about what we do about too many people flying”, he said.
“I am a frequent flyer so I would be top of the list for paying a levy. I’m afraid it’s not going to work.
“There are no circumstances where you can say, ‘Simon flies ten times a year, we’re going to charge him extra’.
McCarthy is critical of flying
PA
“If you start doing that, I am going to find ways around the system. What do you do about frequent flyers based abroad?”
McCarthy disagreed and said logical plans have been drawn up already for such a tax to be introduced.
“The Economics Foundation has said it does work”, he snapped back.
“If you actually double the taxation, the more you fly. We have people, for example, like Rishi Sunak who has a second home in California.
“To take his family club class to California, it emits 24 tonnes of carbon. A tonne of carbon is 48 years of a household’s emissions for electricity.
“A family in Britain who doesn’t fly would have turn off all their electricity for 48 years to make up for it.”