THIRD RUNWAY REVIEW MUST NOW BEGIN

Following the publication last week of the Government’s Jet Zero Strategy (JZS), the Government must now honour its pledge from September 2021, to decide whether to review the Airports National Policy Statement on Heathrow expansion.

The JZS aims to halve emissions from 38.2 megatonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) emitted in 2019, to 19.3MtCO2 by 2050. But Heathrow expansion is estimated to create an additional 7MtCO2 per annum in addition to the 20MtCO2 per annum it already emits.

Even allowing for a small reduction in emissions between now and 2050, this target seems grossly optimistic and places significant faith in the development of technologies that are in their infancy or do not yet exist to help deliver the decarbonisation of aviation.

The JZS ignores advice from the Government’s Climate Change Committee, which advised seeing if technologies such as ‘Sustainable’ Aviation Fuels or electric flight deliver at a fast enough pace to see a substantial reduction in emissions first, before deciding whether or not to expand aviation.

It is also unclear as to whether the strategy has the support of the next Prime Minister, given the Jet Zero Council and Strategy was a creation of Boris Johnson’s Government.

Campaigners and MPs gathered at Westminster to highlight that unless there is no expansion of Heathrow, the Jet Zero Strategy amounts to little more than more hot air.

This long-overdue review is now vital, and the only realistic solution is for the Government to withdraw policy support for a third runway at Heathrow. Just last week, the Government’s plans for Net Zero were ruled unlawful, on the basis that their vagueness raises questions as to whether the targets would actually be met.

Further, since Parliament designated the ANPS in 2018, the carbon abatement costs of Heathrow expansion has doubled, from £50bn to £100bn, wiping out any claimed economic benefit that the project might have delivered.

However sustainable and well-meaning elements of the strategy might be, plans to expand Heathrow remain the elephant in the room.. We cannot have a third runway and expect the 260,000 additional flights per year to be running off vegetable oils or electric batteries: it’s just not realistic.

The best thing the Government can do to decarbonise aviation is to abandon plans for a third runway at Heathrow. A review of the ANPS cannot come soon enough.

Robert Barnstone

Stop Heathrow Expansion