An international solidarity contribution
on plane tickets – Norway’s position –
In December 2005 Norway agreed
to support the French initiative on a solidarity contribution on plane tickets
to help mobilize additional development finance for pursuing the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Among a host of creative proposals to achieve
increased, long-term, stable and predictable funding for development by means of
internationally coordinated taxation, this initiative holds much promise, and more than the other suggested
alternatives.
Norway long ago reached and surpassed the
internationally agreed target of allocating 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income
(GNI) to Official Development Assistance (ODA). We continue to hold the opinion
that providing ODA through ordinary budgetary allocations is the most important
means of mobilizing external development finance. In view of the challenge of
the MDGs and the indisputable gap between these common goals and the financing
available to reach them, Norway
nevertheless finds it imperative to help stimulate additional efforts,
including through new and innovative mechanisms. The decision to support an air
transportation levy thus follows on the heels of Norway’s
support to the International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm), as
proposed by the United
Kingdom.
Norway’s implementation of an air
transportation levy will depend upon increased international support for – and a
more concrete political commitment to – the French initiative. Norway stands
ready to establish such a scheme provided we can mobilize a critical mass of countries,
including key members of the European Union, to implement such a levy. We hope
other countries will come forward before, during or after the Ministerial Conference
on Innovative Financing Mechanisms for Development, to be held in Paris on 28 February and 1
March 2006.
France has proposed that the funds raised
through an air transportation levy be used to combat hiv/aids, malaria and
tuberculosis, including through the creation of a new international facility
for drug purchases. Norway
supports the gist of this proposal, but would not necessarily rule out
alternatives. Beneficiary programmes should be discussed among those countries that
decide to become partners in this initiative.
Norway would prefer that as much as possible
of the funds collected through a solidarity fee be pooled and disbursed through
existing multilateral institutions that have a good track record in terms of achieving
results. We believe UN organizations should be prioritized. In order to
mobilize popular support for the air transportation levy, we believe priority
should be given to clearly identifiable programmes and purposes with a high
degree of visibility.
Norway insists that the funds raised
through new and innovative mechanisms, including a solidarity contribution on air
transportation, be entirely and truly additional to existing ODA efforts from
donor countries. After all, this is the sine
qua non of any new and innovative mechanism.
Should
a plane ticket levy be implemented, care should be taken to compensate for
failure to include the cost of environmental damage caused by international air
transport. From an environmental policy perspective, a plane ticket levy would
not be not the most cost-efficient way of taxing air transportation. A
development-motivated plane ticket scheme could nevertheless co-exist with more
environmentally efficient mechanisms.
Royal Norwegian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
10 January 2006
