Template email asking MPs to support the frequent flyer levy

Dear [your MP’s name]

I’m one of your constituents, and I’m getting in touch because it’s really important to me that the government is more ambitious about protecting our climate. I’d like our government to cut emissions faster to help avoid dangerous climate impacts, in a way that’s fair to people across the UK.

The government claims that it will be possible to fly without producing emissions, but technologies to allow this are at best decades away from being available to passengers. There’s no way to fly without producing a lot of emissions which harm the climate, so we need to cut back on flights. Just 15% of people in the UK take 70% of all the flights, while in a typical year around half of the population don’t fly at all. If the small group of people who take most of the flights flew less, it would be possible to cut emissions from aviation while also enabling more people to fly sometimes.

A frequent flyer levy is a progressive aviation tax which leaves people’s first flight within a given time period untaxed, and increases for each subsequent flight. It would expand access to flying and cut costs for ordinary families taking occasional holidays overseas. A frequent flyer levy would help keep aviation emissions within the UK’s legally binding climate targets, without affecting most people. A frequent flyer levy was recommended by Parliament’s Climate Assembly and is supported by the Climate Change Committee. Recent polling from BEIS found that a majority of the public are in favour of a frequent flyer levy, with fewer than one in five people opposed.

People need to be able to travel, but this doesn’t need to be by plane. If train travel was as cheap as flying, then two thirds of people in the UK would be willing to consider moving to train travel. Moving journeys to train rather than plane travel could also be better for jobs, with the potential to create around three jobs in low-carbon travel for each job lost in aviation.

As your constituent, I’d really like you to represent me by supporting policies to protect our climate. Please could you add your name to the open letter calling on the government to bring in a frequent flyer levy? You can do this by sending an email to FFL@wearepossible.org. You can read the letter at www.wearepossible.org/aviationopenletter.

Please could you reply to let me know whether you’re willing to represent my views by adding your name?

Thank you for your support,

[Your name and address]