Airport expansion plans 'grounded'

Royal Commission Report Brands Government Plans "unsustainable" as Aviation Consultation Deadline is Extended

The Government's plans for massive expansion of UK airports, which would affect Cardiff Airport and possibly other sites in Wales, were "grounded" yesterday (Friday 29th November) following the publication of a highly critical report by the Government's own environmental advisory group (1). Friends of the Earth Cymru say that the report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution injects urgent points into the Government's current public consultation on aviation which was due to end today (Saturday 30th Nov) (2).

The public consultation itself has been extended after the Government was defeated last week in the High Court when a judge ruled that the Government's consultation process on airport expansion was unfair. The consultation had been challenged because it excluded possible expansion at Gatwick airport (3). Another airport proposal, on the Llanwern steelworks site near Newport, may now also feature in the extended consultation, as this was a latecomer to the debate as the site has only recently emerged as a possibility. A clarification of the Severnside airport proposal, which FOE Cymru has strongly opposed due unavoidable significant breaches of environmental designations, may also feature or not in the extended consultation.

According to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) report:

• the Government's plans for airport growth in the UK will undermine its own climate change strategy
• the Government must end the perverse subsidies given to the aviation industry
• there is an urgent need to invest in the alternatives to short-haul aviation.

Friends of the Earth Cymru raised similar concerns (4) and solutions earlier this month in a presentation at a Department for Transport (DfT) convened conference in Cardiff Castle about future aviation strategy (5).

Commenting, Friends of the Earth Cymru transport spokesperson Neil Crumpton said:

"At a recent DfT convened aviation conference in Cardiff Castle there was a very high degree of agreement among delegates including environmental, local authority and business interests, that aviation's environmental impacts should be costed and included. There was also support for the Welsh Assembly to lead calls for a European and International tax on aviation fuel as part of its Sustainable Development remit. The Royal Commission report adds weight to these ideas."

"It is clear that the Government must go back to the drawing board with its unsustainable plans for unchecked growth in air travel. The forecast expansion in UK air transport, from 180 million to 500 million passenger movements by 2030, would result in a dangerous increase in UK climate change emissions. Yet incredibly the scale and consideration of carbon emissions have been excluded from the public consultation so far. The Government must ensure that the impacts on climate will be dealt with fully in the extended, and preferably a critically revised, consultation on airport policy."

Notes

1) In a Special Report launched yesterday (Friday 29th), the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution expresses deep concern about the global impacts of the rapid growth in air travel. Air transport operates globally and its impacts on the atmosphere, particularly those that could result in climate change, could have worldwide consequences.

The key findings of the RCEP report were:

Airport growth will undermine climate change strategy:

5.2: "[The RCEP is] deeply concerned at the prospect of continuing rapid increases in air transport, particularly an increase in short-haul flights and air freight, and the serious and continuing impact this will have on the prospects for achieving the necessary overall reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, with their crucial implications for the atmosphere and climate. The government shows few signs of bringing forward policies that will address these issues, either in the short or the long term. On the contrary, the policies set out in the consultation exercise on regional airports are likely to exacerbate the problems.

5.3: "Increasing air transport will either reduce the UK's ability to meet its Kyoto obligations, or represent an additional reduction to be imposed on other industries to offset the increase...we see plans to facilitate the growth of air transport as inconsistent...with its stated commitment to sustainable development."

End perverse subsidies to aviation industry:

5.6: "It is not acceptable that the aviation industry should continue to receive what is in effect a large subsidy at the expense of other modes of transport or sectors and the environment."

5.7: "Tax exemption, in as much as it extends to domestic flight, represents a penalty on other industries emitting carbon dioxide in the UK, because emissions from domestic flights are included in the total domestic carbon dioxide inventory and so are covered by the Kyoto Protocol. It is now a matter of some urgency that this distortion of competition be corrected."

Invest in the alternatives to short-haul aviation:

5.19: "Currently 18% of passengers are carried on domestic flights; so encouraging a shift away from the use of air transport over such distances, and even those on shorter European flights, could reap considerable environmental benefits as well as relieving pressure on major airports. Rail transport is demonstrably more sustainable than air transport..."

5.20: "[There has been] a failure to invest in rail infrastructure and a failure to reflect environmental externalities in the cost of air transport. Instead of encouraging airport expansion and proliferation, for internal UK travel and some intra-European journeys, it is essential that the government should divert resources into encouraging and facilitating a modal shift from air to high-speed rail."

The Environmental Effects of Civil Aircraft in Flight can be downloaded from the Commission's website.

2) A Government (DfT) public consultation, to examine and decide how our nation's air services and airports should develop over the next 30 years, commenced several months ago was due to end on 30th November.

3) Following a recent court case the consultation period has been extended past 30 November 2002. An end date has yet to be agreed and will be announced shortly. More details here.

4) Carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution is one of the main causes of dangerous climate change and aviation is the fastest growing source. The Government has forecast that the CO2 from aircraft using UK airports is expected to rise to 70-80 million tonnes by 2030 [3]. In 1990, the year used for calculating reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, emissions were 17 million tonnes; in 2000 they were 35 million tonnes. By contrast, RCEP has said that the UK's total emissions of CO2 must fall by at least 60% by 2050 (from 1990 levels) - a target referred to by the Prime Minister. Growth in airports and air travel will make it even harder for the UK to meet this target and the pressure of doing so will fall on other parts of the economy.

The Government's data shows that if the UK is to stay on track to meet the target of a 60% cut, emissions from industry, people's homes and road transport would have to fall by an extra 53-65 million tonnes, if aviation emissions increase as forecast by the Government. This is a rise of 20 per cent - or about two and half times the savings achieved by higher fuel taxes, the climate change levy on high energy users in industry and Government support for renewable energy combined. The Government's air transport consultation documents make no reference to this as an issue of great importance for many other sectors because of the additional costs that will be imposed on them.

5) DfT (Welsh) Aviation Strategy Key Issues Conference 5th November 2002 Cardiff Castle, attended and part facilitated by NAW officials.