Representation by Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) (Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA))
- Date submitted
- 13 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Non-statutory organisations
The proposed expansion of Gatwick is in complete contradiction of advice from the statutory Climate Change Committee. The CCC has repeatedly advised government that there must not be any net expansion of UK airport capacity because there is no realistic prospect of alternative fuels and technologies decarbonising aviation by 2050, let alone halving the industry's emissions by 2030, as advised by the IPCC. The increased emissions from these proposals would demonstrably increase the emissions profile of the airport, with no mitigation from any other UK airport shrinking its passenger numbers being included as part of the proposals. In its 2023 Progress Report to Parliament https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/2023-progress-report-to-parliament/ , the UK government's advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) issued a strongly-worded recommendation that there should be no net airport expansion across the UK, stating that: “Demand management is the most effective way of reducing aviation CO2 and non-CO2 emissions (page 267)... No airport expansions should proceed until a UK-wide capacity management framework is in place to annually assess and, if required, control sector CO2 emissions and non-CO2 effects.” This framework is not currently in place and the emissions which would be caused by this expansion are not currently assessed on a cumulative basis by national government. Therefore permitting airports to expand would clearly be in contravention of the Climate Change Committee’s advice. We therefore ask Inspectors to endorse the concept of all UK airport expansion emissions being viewed and considered in the planning system as cumulative, as strongly suggested by the CCC. Otherwise, even in the midst of the climate emergency, only moderate weight might be afforded in the overall planning balance when clearly emissions do not limit themselves to any individual airport but tally up nationally. The CCC's advice for the UK governments 6th carbon budget was that there should be no net expansion of UK airport capacity, unless that sector was on track to sufficiently out perform its net emissions trajectory and the additional demand could be accommodated. It is not. The UK government's Jet Zero Strategy includes this Policy Commitment:- "We will keep under review whether further guidance is needed to assist airport planning decision-making, with particular reference to environmental impacts.". That time is upon us. We therefore ask that if Inspectors decide they cannot endorse the concept of all UK airport expansion emissions being viewed and considered in the planning system as cumulative and given due weight for the implications, then reference is directly made in their final report that this national problem is deforming the national planning process - and that they recognise the problem and recommend UK government need to deal with this anomaly by taking up previous CCC advice to do so and acting upon their policy commitment.