Tories' tax revenues will go to married couples

Money that a Conservative government would raise from taxing air travel will be used on schemes such as tax breaks for married couples, David Cameron has promised.

His aim is to offer a double whammy to encourage people to behave in ways that the Tory leader thinks are good for society: by staying together to raise children, while avoiding environmentally damaging behaviour such as unnecessary flights. In a BBC interview yesterday he called it "taxing the bad and rewarding the good".

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Speaking later at a Tory conference on social responsibility, Mr Cameron promised: "Any green taxes introduced by the next Conservative government will be replacement taxes, not new taxes. Any rises in green taxation will be compensated by reductions elsewhere - for example in taxation on families. We want to use the tax system to encourage greener behaviour, not to bleed taxpayers dry."

Mr Cameron has proposed a new flight tax, although he has said that travellers would have an annual "green air miles allowance" so that a family that takes one Continental holiday a year will not be affected. The tax would replace the current passenger duty.

"Air passenger duty is not directly linked to carbon emissions, and provides no incentives for airlines to use more fuel-efficient aircraft," he said. The idea has angered airlines, who warn that it will make it difficult for British carriers to compete internationally.

Mr Cameron also set out five tests that he said would show whether the Government's campaign to reduce carbon emissions would be truly effective. They included annual targets for carbon reductions. Mr Cameron claimed that longer-term targets do not work. Annual targets also have the backing of the Liberal Democrats and green groups, but are expected to be decisively rejected when the Government publishes its Climate Change Bill this week.

The former US vice-president Al Gore, whose film on climate change was one of this year's Oscar winners, will meet the Shadow Cabinet on Thursday. Yesterday Mr Gore praised the climate change debate taking place in the UK as "a breath of fresh air".

But Mr Cameron still has to win over doubters in his own party, who think that the risk of climate change has been exaggerated. Edward Leigh, chairman of the powerful Public Accounts Committee, told MPs yesterday that there are still "eminent" scientists who dispute the cause of global warming.