Representation by Zero Carbon Guildford (Zero Carbon Guildford)
- Date submitted
- 7 November 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Zero Carbon Guildford statement on airport expansion Every major UK airport has plans to expand, with many hoping to double passenger numbers by 2030. This includes airports around Guildford – notably Gatwick Airport and Farnborough Airport, both of which are consulting on significant expansions. Gatwick Airport aims to open a second runway, while Farnborough aims to increase their flight limit by 40% to 70,000 a year. Despite much rhetoric about ‘sustainable flying’, offsetting and green aviation fuel, flying is still extremely carbon intensive and will almost certainly remain so for many decades at the very least. Private jet flights, such as those hosted by Farnborough, are particularly carbon intensive given the average of just 2.4 passengers per flight, and the easy and quick connectivity of many locations serviced by these jets (London and Paris being two of the most common destinations). The government’s own advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), have said plainly that there can be no more airport expansion if the UK is to stand any chance of hitting its Net Zero targets. One of the ‘key messages’ of its June 2023 Report to Parliament is that “there should be no net airport expansion across the UK”[1]. Despite this having been the CCC’s recommendation since at least its Sixth Carbon Budget[2] in 2020, it notes that airports across the UK have both “increased their capacities and continue to develop capacity-expansion proposals” since then. Further, the government still plans for 70% more passenger growth by 2050. The CCC has repeatedly criticised these plans, noting they rely heavily on currently non-existent technologies to improve aircraft efficiency and that there is no policy framework in place to ensure emissions reductions occur. The June 2023 Report to Parliament states “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”. The UK is currently far from achieving the rate of emissions reductions necessary to achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The CCC states clearly that the UK must almost quadruple its emissions reductions outside of electricity supply – including emissions from aviation – to have a chance of achieving these commitments. In line with CCC recommendations, Zero Carbon Guildford believe that airport expansion is incompatible with the emissions reductions required to meet the UK’s legal commitments on climate change, and that any net airport expansion must therefore be halted indefinitely. This includes a second runway at Gatwick, and increases to flight numbers at Farnborough. We advocate instead for policies which will create positive climate, environmental, social and economic opportunities for local communities in areas affected by airport expansion – such as the ‘Green New Deal for Gatwick’[3] proposed by Green New Deal UK, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), and Greenhouse thinktank. 1 https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/2023-progress-report-to-parliament/ 2 https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/sixth-carbon-budget/ 3 https://www.greennewdealuk.org/updates/a-green-new-deal-for-gatwick/