Archived press release

MPs slam Government over aviation and climate

7 June 2004

An influential committee of MPs has launched a devastating attack on the Government over its aviation and climate change policies.

The chair of the all-party Environmental Audit Committee, Peter Ainsworth MP accused the Government of being both "irresponsible and intellectually dishonest" in attempting to "massage down" the committee's warning that "emissions from aviation will constitute, on the basis of DfT's forecasts and policies, nearly 70% of the UK target for carbon emissions in 2050."

He also slammed the Department of Transport for "behaving like a maverick department, indifferent or even actively hostile to the need to tackle global warming - despite the emphasis which has recently been placed on this by, amongst others, the Prime Minister."

The Environmental Audit Committee [EAC] latest criticisms follows the Government's official response to an EAC report in March which said that Government plans to allow a massive expansion in air travel will make it impossible for it to meet its climate change targets [2].

Friends of the Earth's aviation campaigner Richard Dyer said:

"The Environmental Audit Committee is right to slam the Government over its policies on climate change and aviation. Unless action is taken to reduce the planned growth in air travel, Government promises to tackle the problem will be futile. But will the Prime Minister listen, or continue to put the interests of the aviation industry ahead of the long-term future of the planet"

The Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King has also expressed his worries about aviation. In March he told the EAC that the impact of aviation on global climate change was "an issue of enormous concern" [3]. And in April Tony Blair said that "climate change is the most important environmental issue facing the world today" [4].

The Government's aviation strategy is coming under increasing attack. Last month it was revealed that official figures showing sharp rises in climate changing gases from air and freight transport were removed from an Office of National Statistics (ONS) report on the environment last week following pressure from the Department of Transport [5]. The figures would have revealed that between 1990 and 2002 greenhouse gas emissions from the UK transport industries rose 50 per cent. The largest increase, 85 per cent, was from air transport. Last year the UK's emissions of carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas), was 1.5 per cent higher than 2002 - despite Government promises to cut emissions.

Notes

1. www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/environmental_audit_committee.cfm

2. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
mps_attack_government_avia_15032004.html

3. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
government_must_listen_to_30032004.html

4. Climate Group press release 27/4/04

5. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/officials_try_to_hide_rise_27052004.html

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust