English businessman Richard Branson, who has long been a vocal critic of global climate inaction, has called for the airline industry to pay a carbon tax to reflect greenhouse gas emissions.

“I’m standing here as an airline owner, actually as the owner of three airlines, and I’m saying a carbon tax should be levied on airlines.”

“It’s the only way to ultimately get the world where we need. It will cost me a lot of money. Some of these decisions will cost countries money, but those countries must be brave and spend that money for the sake of the world.”

Modern aircraft are much cleaner than older models and have improved drastically on efficiency, but the rapid growth of air travel has meant emissions of greenhouse gasses from the industry overall have grown strongly in recent decades. In the EU, from 1990 to 2006, emissions from aviation increased 87%.

Watch Richard Branson discussing a carbon tax for airlines