The Netherlands is working at a European level to introduce a tax on aircraft fuel, junior finance minister Menno Snel told an aviation conference in The Hague on Thursday.

The lack of tax on aircraft fuel is down to an international treaty dating from 1944, and that treaty is completely outdated due to climate change, the Dutch cabinet says.

‘The Netherlands believes that despite this treaty, it should still be possible to tax kerosene, if we do it with other European countries,’ Snel said in a press statement. ‘It is, of course, rather strange that you pay more tax on filling up your car with petrol than you do for filling up a plane.’

The Netherlands is planning to introduce its own aviation tax of some €7 a ticket if no European agreement is reached before 2021.

A European Commission report leaked by green campaign group Transport & Environment in May shows that taxing kerosene in Europe would cut aviation emissions by 11% and have no net impact on jobs or the economy as a whole.

The conference in The Hague runs until Friday.