Archived press release

Aviation: Government abandons environmental responsibilities

16 December 2003

Friends of the Earth today accused the Government of abdicating its environmental responsibilities after it gave the green light to a massive expansion in air travel. The environmental pressure group said that as well as abandoning its most important environmental target - tackling climate change - the Government has also missed a major opportunity to invest up to 9bn in high speed rail and other forms of environmentally-friendly transport.

Today's announcement has plunged into jeopardy the Government's long-term target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions [1] while traffic and noise levels will rise as airports become even more congested. Instead of embracing a policy of demand management, the Government has chosen to accept and meet growth forecasts that will lead to severe environmental damage. The Government's own modeling shows that making the aviation industry pay fuel tax and VAT - which it currently does not - would remove the need for new airports or runways before 2030, at no extra real cost to the passenger.

The Government's Aviation White Paper, published today, supported new runways and increased terminal capacity at airports across the UK. This includes a new runway at Stansted in 2011 - 2012 and a third runway and a possible Terminal 6 at Heathrow in 2015 - 2020, subject to environmental conditions concerning noise and air pollution.

Although Transport Minister Alistair Darling also announced a number of `environmental measures', these were greeted by Friends of the Earth as "window-dressing", and predicted to have minimal impact on reducing the damage that will be caused through the expected increase in flights. The release of greenhouse gases from aircraft is especially damaging as it causes three times the global warming of emissions released at ground level.

Friends of the Earth's Director, Tony Juniper, said:

"Today's Aviation White Paper is worse than we feared. The Government has sacrificed its environmental responsibilities to satisfy the demands of the aviation industry. Alistair Darling's decision to massively expand aviation will not only be felt by people living near airports, it will affect people worldwide and impact heavily on generations yet to come. Today's announcement is yet another missed opportunity to put the air industry on a sustainable course."

"In the face of the dire warnings from climate scientists and its own official targets, our Government has chosen to allow huge increases in emissions from aircraft. If the aviation industry was taxed fairly, rather than letting it pay no fuel tax and no VAT, then we would not need any new runways anywhere in the country. But it seems that for this Government and the aviation industry, not even the sky is the limit".

"Communities affected by airport expansion must be given legal guarantees that noise and pollution limits will not be broken. Without this, all they can look forward to is yet more broken promises".

Notes

The Government has adopted a target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 60 per cent by 2050 compared with 1990 levels. The House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee recently concluded that the proposed growth in emissions "could totally destroy the Government's recent commitment to a 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050"

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust