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Blair's sustainability advisor issues aviation warning
17 June 2004
Friends of the Earth has welcomed today's warning from Sir Jonathon Porritt, chair of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), that Government plans to tackle climate change will be "impossible" if it allows forecast airport expansion to go ahead. The Government has set a target of a 60 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas, by 2050 (based on 1990 levels).
The SDC is the latest to warn the Government that its aviation policy will wreck its plans to tackle climate change.
In March this year an influential committee of MPs, the Environmental Audit Committee, warned that Government plans to cut carbon dioxide would be "meaningless and unachievable" if airport expansion plans went ahead [1]. Whilst the Government's chief scientific officer, Sir David King said that impact of aviation on global climate change was "an issue of enormous concern" [2]. Sir David has previously warned that climate change was a bigger threat to the planet than terrorism.
Friends of the Earth's aviation campaigner Richard Dyer said:
"This is the latest warning that Government plans to expand our airports are reckless and unsustainable. The alarm bells are ringing. Ministers must listen and put the long term future of the planet ahead of the interests of the highly polluting aviation industry. "
1. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jun 2008
