Frequent flyers are rewarded for polluting. Let them pay the full price

Flying is ‘a carbon-guzzling activity that seldom comes under the spotlight in the way that, say, driving or heating does’. Photograph: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Is net zero a “luxury belief”? A strange assumption seems to have become knitted into the climate debate: that the burden of cutting carbon emissions will – must, inevitably – fall hardest on the poor.

This is the logic by which climate activists are sometimes deemed snobby, classist virtue-signallers – and the principle on which, earlier this year, Rishi Sunak signalled a tactical retreat on green policies. “It cannot be right for Westminster to impose such significant costs on working people,” the prime minister said. Because, of course, this is the group such policies would hurt the most.