The prime minister’s mantra for recovery after the pandemic is “build back green”.

Cutting air passenger duty would help the aviation industry recover but do little to tackle climate change.

Remember Boris Johnson boasted that the UK was the first major economy to set its emissions reduction targets for 2030 – pledging to reduce the amount of carbon emissions the UK produces by 68% compared with 1990 levels.

Reducing emissions from transport is crucial if Britain is to get to net zero.

But flying is the most carbon intensive form of transport.

The idea of an air passenger duty is to get people to use other forms of transport – which create less carbon – such as the train.

The aviation industry has been devastated by the pandemic and even before COVID struck, connectivity around the UK by air was under threat.

The chief beneficiary of a reduction to APD on domestic flights would be Loganair, which is currently the largest carrier following the demise of Flybe at the start of the pandemic.

In an interview with Sky’s Ian King Live, Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles made a case for a cut on the grounds of sustainability – both “environmentally and economically”.

He said: “Try telling somebody who lives in Shetland that they should be using rail services. The nearest… is in Bergen in Norway.

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“If you also look at routes like Edinburgh to Newquay, Newcastle to Exeter, Glasgow to Southampton… these
are rail journeys of eight to ten hours.”

He also accused those of making the case for ferry trips across the Irish Sea of being misguided if they thought maritime was more environmentally friendly.

Mr Johnson, it seems, is acting to shore up business, jobs and the union but not the environment.

And it comes exactly a week after last week’s budget – which drew criticism for its failure to set out specific policies to reduce emissions.

The budget saw a freeze in fuel duty for the 11th year in a row.

That went down badly as a missed opportunity to get people out of their cars.

Green groups will be aghast once more.

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The fact is in this critical year for tackling the climate crisis – and one in which the UK is hosting the COP26 climate summit – there will be scrutiny like never before over every policy which doesn’t run in tandem with the hype.

The saga over whether or not to open a new coal mine in Cumbria still dogs the government.

The same UK government which is telling countries around the world to follow its lead over reducing emissions and turn its back on fossil fuels then failed to intervene over a coal mine in its own back yard.

Boris Johnson can’t have his cake and eat it when it comes to tackling climate change.

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