Rishi Sunak is reportedly set to greenlight significant airport expansion in the UK
By Charlotte Hall
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) told Sunak’s cabinet at the end of June that in order to meet Net Zero by 2050, ‘no airport expansions should proceed’ until aviation is sufficiently decarbonised. Yet under current plans, the aviation capacity is set to expand by more than 70 per cent. Despite backlash from environmental campaigners, Sunak has apparently rejected the CCC’s suggestions.
A Department for Transport spokesperson told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘Airport growth, and the aviation sector as a whole, has a key role to play in boosting our global connectivity and helping grow the economy.
‘We remain supportive of airport expansion where it can be delivered in a sustainable way.’
Major airport expansion plans are already underway. Bristol airport was recently given the greenlight by the High Court after a local campaign group, Bristol Airport Action Network, appealed against the plans.
The airport plans to increase its passenger capacity from 10 million to 12 million, including extensions to the terminals and a new 2,150-space car park.
In a statement following the High Court ruling, Bristol Airport Action Network said: ‘The airport can now expand by an extra two million passengers a year, build a multi-storey car park on Greenbelt land, massively increase the number of summer night flights and congest the local roads with an extra 10,000 cars a day.
‘These plans shows clearly that Bristol Airport simply put profit above any consideration of the climate and ecological crisis, or the considerations of local people and it is impossible for them to pretend otherwise.’
Meanwhile, Gatwick submitted a £2.2 billion plan for a second runway this July, looking to double their passenger capacity to 75 million a year. Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate insisted that a second runway is compatible with UK climate targets. Yet that seems hard to believe in light of just how many expansions are in the pipeline across the country.
Related links:
London Stansted Airport and London City Airport are both fighting for permission to expand. Luton has applied for a Development Consent Order to increase capacity to 32 million passengers a year. There are proposals to reopen Manston Airport in Kent after it was granted redevelopment approval this year. Southampton Airport’s expansion has been approved, and Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport has just published a master plan in which it sets out intentions for expansion.
And while London Heathrow’s third runway was put on hold during the pandemic, an internal review is currently underway to resume the efforts, despite vehement opposition by campaign groups.
Mile for mile, planes are the most environmentally damaging form of transport. 15 per cent of the UK’s climate impact comes from aviation.
Not only do they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions, but they also release other harmful pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and soot particles. These non-CO2 emissions contribute even more heavily to global warming than CO2 and are responsible for two-thirds of the aviation industry’s climate impact.
Cait Hewitt, policy director of the Aviation Environment Federation, an organisation that fights against aviation expansion, responded to the CCC advice. She stated: ‘The Government needs to stop giving in to the aviation industry’s insatiable demands for growth and recognise that in a climate emergency all sectors of the economy need to start doing things differently.’
