Letter in the Guardian, from climate-aware organisations, on the disastrous impact of a new runway

Date added: 24 October, 2016

In an open letter, a large number of environmental and climate-aware organisations have written about the disastrous impacts of allowing the expansion of the UK aviation sector by building a new runway. The letter says: “With the scrapping of vital decarbonisation policies and funding, the UK is already way off-track to meet our climate change commitments. The impacts of any new runway will be devastating to people’s lives and to the planet. … the biggest tragedy of the government’s failure is a global one. … The push for more runway space is not about demand from business – that has been dropping for over a decade. Nor is it about people taking one or two annual holidays. Growth is being driven by the frequent leisure flyers taking weekend breaks and shopping trips by plane. Half of the UK population don’t fly in any given year, yet all of us subsidise the holidays of the rich. The UK must not abandon our commitments under the Paris agreement and the Climate Change Act for the convenience of binge flyers. We will not allow our government to ignore the promises they have made to us and to the world.” There are also statements by Professor Kevin Anderson and Professor Alice Larkin, on how building a new runway is entirely incompatible with the UK’s obligations under the Paris Agreement on climate. Kevin described adding a runway as demonstrating “a palpable disdain for the Paris Agreement.”
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Airport expansion’s disastrous effects, near and far

Letters – The Guardian

Sunday 23 October 2016

The government’s decision to greenlight aviation expansion (Chris Grayling: decision on airport expansion to be made on Tuesday, theguardian.com, 23 October) is a predictable failure, but not an acceptable one.

With the scrapping of vital decarbonisation policies and funding, the UK is already way off-track to meet our climate change commitments. The impacts of any new runway will be devastating to people’s lives and to the planet.

Locally it will see the demolition of hundreds of homes, result in increased noise pollution, and illegal levels of air pollution – already responsible for almost 10,000 premature deaths in London every year.

But the biggest tragedy of the government’s failure is a global one. Only around 5% of the world’s population flies at all, yet the impacts of climate change – droughts, floods and heatwaves – are already hitting poorer communities in the global south, who are the least likely to ever set foot on a plane.

The UK must not abandon our commitments under the Paris agreement and the Climate Change Act for the convenience of binge flyers. We will not allow our government to ignore the promises they have made to us and to the world.

Craig Bennett CEO, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland,

Nicky Bull Chair, Operation Noah,

Amy Cameron, Director, 10:10,

Sarah Clayton. Coordinator, AirportWatch,

Peter Deane, Biofuelwatch,

Bill Hemmings, Director, aviation and shipping, European Federation for Transport and Environment,

Claire James, Campaigns coordinator, Campaign Against Climate Change

Rosalie James, Chair, Aircraft Noise 3 Villages(Lightwater, Windlesham & Bagshot),

Tim Johnson, Director, Aviation Environment Federation

James MacColl, Head of campaigns, Campaign for Better Transport,

Kara Moses, Environment editor, Red Pepper

Leo Murray. Director, Fellow Travellers

Danielle Paffard, UK divestment campaigner, 350.org

John Sauven, Executive director, Greenpeace UK

Kia Trainor, Director, CPRE Sussex

Anna Vickerstaff, Co-director, UK Youth Climate Coalition

Vivienne Westwood, Climate Revolution

Peter Willan, Chair, Richmond Heathrow Campaign

… and seven others

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/23/airport-expansions-disastrous-effects-near-and-far

Statement by Professor Alice Larkin

“The highly constrained carbon budget that is consistent with the Paris Agreement requires all fossil fuel consuming sectors to urgently accelerate towards full decarbonisation – and while some sectors will achieve this sooner than others, no sector can be excluded. Technical and even operational options for decarbonising the aviation sector within a timeframe consistent with the Paris goals are few and far between. As such, demand-side measures that constrain further growth, must receive much greater attention. Equally, policy measures aimed at increasing capacity and supporting further growth in air travel such as new runways, particularly within richer nations, are at odds with the Paris Agreement. Such developments risk future stranded assets, and should be avoided .”

Professor Alice Larkin:

Professor of Climate Science & Energy Policy, University of Manchester

Statement by Professor Kevin Anderson

“The UK Government’s enthusiasm for more airport capacity alongside its clamour for high-carbon shale gas demonstrates a palpable disdain for the Paris Agreement. Both of these decisions will lock the UK into ongoing emissions of carbon dioxide for decades to come, putting short-term convenience and financial gain ahead of long-term and genuinely low-carbon prosperity. Such reckless disregard for the prospects of our own children and the well being of poor and climatically vulnerable communities arises from either a scientifically illiterate Government or one that cares nothing for its legacy. Whichever it may be, these are undesirable characteristics of a government facing the climate change and other strategic challenges of the twenty-first century.”

Professor Kevin Anderson: University of Manchester and Uppsala

Letter in the Guardian, from climate-aware organisations, on the disastrous impact of a new runway

Statement by Professor Alice Larkin

Statement by Professor Kevin Anderson

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