Aviation campaigners from across Britain join Stop Heathrow Expansion to call on the government to stop airport expansion plans
PRESS RELEASE
14 June 2022
For immediate use
Aviation campaigners from across Britain join Stop Heathrow Expansion to call on the government to stop airport expansion plans
Today, Stop Heathrow Expansion joined with 24 other campaign groups across London and the rest of the country to send an open letter to the government calling on ministers to re-think their policy of supporting an unconstrained growth of airport expansion, including the largest proposed project – the expansion of Heathrow (1).
They want the government to immediately stop plans to expand airports to help the UK cut its greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and as quickly as possible. The letter was sent to Robert Courts, Minister for Aviation and Michael Gove, Minister for Levelling Up and Communities and echoes advice from independent experts and national environmental organisations.
The letter supports advice recently given to the government by a group of leading environmental organisations, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (2). They urged the government to prevent any further expansion of airports until aviation emissions are falling and wider emissions are on track to keep global heating to no more than 1.5oC.
Separate research by independent experts Element Energy has also concluded that “there should be no airport expansion until and unless it is clear that … [aviation] emissions… are on track to meet a fair emissions reduction for 2035 and beyond.” (3).
Geraldine Nicholson, from Stop Heathrow Expansion, said:
“This important letter comes at a time when too much hope is being placed in fuels and new technologies will reducing aviation emissions sometime in the distant future. The government’s Climate Change Committee highlight very great uncertainties and high risks of over-reliance on scaling up these largely untested new fuels and technologies. It’s highly irresponsible to take such a gamble when we’re talking about the threat of climate catastrophe.”
“There is still time to make the right decisions for our environment. We hope that the ministers will take note of this letter and urge them to halt expansion projects like Heathrow, which would add another 260,000 flights per year over the skies of London and pollute our atmosphere further. That is unacceptable.”
ENDS.
Notes for Editors
1. Letter to Robert Courts and Michael Gove: the letter was initiated by GALBA and has been signed by 24 other aviation/climate campaign groups from across the country, including Manchester and Heathrow. You can read the letter here.
2. On 18 May, an open letter was sent to Robert Courts by a group of large environmental non-governmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. They called on the Government to withdraw its policy support for airport expansion until aviation emissions are falling and wider emissions are substantially below a 1.5oC-compliant trajectory.
3. On 16 May this year, Element Energy analysed the policy options available to government to ensure aviation contributes proportionately to the UK’s target of cutting all greenhouse gas emissions by 78% by 2035. They concluded that “there should be no airport expansion until and unless it is clear that both in-sector (aircraft technology) and out-of-sector (carbon removal) emissions reductions are on track to meet a fair emissions reduction for 2035 and beyond.” Element Energy has previously been contracted by the Dept for Transport to advise the government on its climate-related policy options.
4. Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said last year, “There is not any space for airport expansion” if the UK is to meet its climate goals. The CCC’s policy recommendation is for “no net expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory and can accommodate the additional demand”. That test has not been met and will not be met for many years to come.
For more information, contact: Rob Barnstone, 07806 947050 or rob@stopheathrowexpansion.co.uk