Thursday, January 30, 2025
Labour government walks into new envionmental controversy
The paper says that Shaun Spiers, executive director at think tank Green Alliance, has warned against "growth at any cost", saying: "The economic case for bigger airports and new roads is highly questionable, and it's crystal clear that pushing ahead with these will fly in the face of the UK's climate targets.”
While David Walsh of the World Wildlife Fund said that Reeves was making a "costly mistake" with airport expansions that take decades to build and increase carbon emissions: "Now is the time to put pounds back in people's pockets by insulating homes, decarbonising power, and investing in public transport":
Ms Reeves also announced backing for the redevelopment of Old Trafford in Manchester, a rail link between Oxford and Cambridge and the building of the Lower Thames Crossing. A planning and infrastructure bill will loosen environmental requirements for developers, she said.
Other environmental groups reacted to the announcement and the revelation that the extra runway would see the number of flights increase to more than 700,000 a year:
Friends of the Earth’s head of campaigns, Rosie Downes, warned that giving the go-ahead to airport expansion while relying on new technology such as sustainable aviation fuels would be a “reckless gamble”.
The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s Colin Walker warned that the pathway to net zero already relies on sustainable fuels, and a third runway will “increase emissions way beyond the capacity of these fuels to offset them”.
This is not going to go down well amongst environmentalists in the Labour Party either, including MPs, some of whom have inherited constituencies which will be directly affected by the airport expansion. Things may well get interesting.
