Air Quality
News about aviation and air quality
Government response to EAC on Heathrow air pollution are vague and entirely unsatisfactory
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) criticised the UK Government for its failure to deal adequately with air pollution from a 3rd Heathrow runway. Before its dissolution, for the general election on 8th June 2017, the EAC published the response by the government (dated 21st April) to questions put to it by the committee in February. The responses on air pollution are not satisfactory. Asked by the EAC to carry out work to reduce the significant health impacts identified, the government just says it is updating "its evidence base on airport capacity as appropriate to ensure that any final NPS is based on the most up to date information" ... and that "The Government is determined to meet its air quality obligations and to do so in the shortest time possible." ..."The draft NPS stipulates that final development consent will only be granted if the Secretary of State is satisfied that, with mitigation, the scheme would be compliant with legal air quality requirements." ie. totally vague, saying almost nothing specific. The EAC said Government must publish a comprehensive assessment of the infrastructure requirements of a 3rd runway and consult on it before publishing a final NPS. The Government just said "necessary changes to the transport system will rightly be considered as part of the statutory planning process." And so on.
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Draft Government plans to cut NO2 pollution are woefully inadequate, having limited impact
The government was forced to publish its draft Air Quality Plan consultation (closes 15th June) on 5th May, having tried to delay it till after the election. It has not impressed campaigners for lower NO2 in our air. The plan has been criticised for being "woefully inadequate" and containing measures that would make only slight improvements. There is a planned scrappage scheme for a year, but this would only be for 15,000 vehicles (9,000 diesel and 6,000 petrol). The plan would replace these vehicles with electric Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles (ULEVs). It would cost the government money. There are plans to get more vehicles retrofitted, with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology for buses and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and LPG technology for black cabs. But it would only be for around 6,000 buses, 4,400 black cabs, and 2,000 HGVs by 2020. There could be more incentives to buy both battery operated and plug-in hybrid electric ULEVS. And also hopes to change driver behaviour to drive more smoothly, remove speed humps, or cut speed limits. All sound sensible ideas, but would have minimal impacts on the vast numbers of UK road vehicles. There are around 160,000 vehicles per day on the M4 near Heathrow, and around 263,000 on the M25 near Heathrow. It will take more than the government's current proposals to make more than a tiny dent in all that NO2 air pollution. There is no mention of airports in the Defra document.
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Govt under pressure on 3rd runway air pollution – Heathrow just “confident” on future “exciting breakthroughs”
The UK Government is under increasing pressure to clarify how a 3rd Heathrow runway could be delivered without breaching air quality and CO2 dioxide emissions targets. In February the parliamentary EAC issued a report that called on the Government to produce a new air quality strategy “to determine whether Heathrow Airport expansion can be delivered within legal air quality limits”. It also said the Government “must not allow our air quality standards to be watered down as a result of leaving the EU”, and urged clarification on what a post-Brexit air quality national plan would look like. The UK needs to ensure EU air quality targets won’t be quietly dropped. The government's draft NPS has made vague assurances that “final development consent [for a third Heathrow runway] will only be granted if the Secretary of State [for Transport] is satisfied that, with mitigation, the scheme would be compliant with legal air quality requirements”. However, there is no clarity on what that means. They surely would not prevent Heathrow using its runway, after spending so much money building it. Heathrow just says “Although we don’t have all these solutions yet we have a strong history of innovation and we’re confident that the next 10 years will hold even more exciting breakthroughs than the last.” ie. fingers crossed it all just - possibly - might be OK ....
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Government cannot delay air pollution plan – must be published by 8th May
The UK Government has lost a court bid to delay publication of its air pollution strategy, and must now release it before the 8th June election. Courts had given the government until Monday 24th April to set out draft guidelines to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution. Late last week, ministers lodged an application to delay their release until after the general election saying publication would fall foul of election "purdah" rules. But now the High Court ordered the draft plans to be published on 9th May, five days after the local elections, but long before the general election on 8th June. The date for publication of the final air pollution strategy document remains unchanged on 31st July. The government's lawyers said publication now would drop a "controversial bomb" into the mix of local and national elections. But the High Court said purdah was a convention only and did not override legal obligations to clean up the air. Additionally, the impact on public health would exempt it from the purdah rules anyway. This is the latest development in a long-running legal action brought against the government by environmental lawyers, ClientEarth. This at least means that there will be some idea of the air pollution proposals before the end of the draft Heathrow NPS consultation. Had they been delayed, there would not have been. .
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Heathrow NO2 air pollution worsens as Government presses ahead with 3rd runway plan
A report published on the Heathrow Airwatch website, shows tha air pollution around Heathrow is getting worse - as the Government presses ahead with plans for a 3rd runway. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels rose at 9 out of 12 monitors in west London within two kilometres (1.24 miles) of the airport between 2015 and 2016, according to provisional data. At two sites in Hillingdon and Hayes it remained in breach of EU limits. At another, Oxford Avenue in Hillingdon, the average NO2 level rose from 32 micrograms per cubic metre of air to almost the legal limit of 40. Opponents of the 3rd runway fear this confirms that air pollution around Heathrow is getting worse, and would be at very unhealthy levels with a new runway added. John Stewart, chairman of HACAN, said: “The key fact that Heathrow cannot hide is that air quality around the airport is going in the wrong direction. It is going to be harder than ever for Heathrow to build a third runway and stay within legal air pollution limits.” The Heathrow Airwatch report said NO2 levels had increased at many of the monitoring sites between 2015 and 2016, and across the South-East so “indicated” the specific rises were not only the result of changes in local activities. NO2 levels are below, or just below, the EU limit of 40 micrograms at 9 out of the 11 local monitoring sites outside Heathrow's boundary within 2km of the airport.
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Four Select Committees launch an unprecedented joint inquiry into air pollution
MP’s from four Parliamentary select committees have combined forces to launch an unprecedented joint inquiry on air quality to scrutinise cross-government plans to tackle urban pollution hotspots. The Environmental Audit Committee, Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Health, and Transport Committees will hold four evidence sessions to consider mounting scientific evidence on the health and environmental impacts of outdoor air pollution. The Government has lost two UK court cases about its plans to tackle the key pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The High Court has ordered the Government to publish a draft new clean air plan to tackle NO2 by 24 April, with a final plan by 31 July. The European Commission has also threatened enforcement which could see the UK pay millions of pounds in fines if the Government does not within two months take steps to bring 16 UK zones within legal pollution limits. Louise Ellman, Chair of the Transport Committee (dealing with the draft NPS on Heathrow), said emissions from vehicles are a significant problem and the standards that governments have relied on have not delivered the expected reductions: "We will be asking what more can be done to increase the use of cleaner vehicles as well as to encourage the use of sustainable modes of transport.” Deadline is 12th May 2017.
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Evidence session on Heathrow impacts held by the GLA Environment Committee
The GLA Environment Committee held a meeting on 16th March, to which they invited both Heathrow staff (Matt Gorman, and Andrew Chen) and opponents (John Stewart, Jenny Bates and Simon Birkett) to reply to questions. The Committee has serious concerns about the environmental impacts of Heathrow, and they have not yet been persuaded by the bland assurances that Heathrow continues to give. The transcript of the session is not yet available, but it is all on Webcast. Important points were made, in response to Assembly Members' questions, on issues such as how much Heathrow would actually pay towards necessary surface access improvements; how long Heathrow will take to install noise the pledged £700 million (up to 20 years, Matt Gorman says); and how the ban on night flights should mean 8 hours without planes, not only the six and a half hours without scheduled flights, that Heathrow has grudgingly agreed to consider. The committee have experience of needing to mistrust bland assurances by Heathrow on how a 3rd runway could meet noise and air pollution challenges. They will be submitting their response to the DfT's consultation on the draft NPS.
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No assurances given by DfT Minister of State, John Hayes, on Heathrow 3rd runway and surface access
Sarah Olney, the LibDem MP for Richmond Park, secured a debate in Westminster Hall on "Heathrow Expansion: Surface Access" on 28th February. Sarah and Ruth Cadbury and Tania Mathias made relevant points about transport, and asked the Minister for replies. John Hayes spoke, but avoided giving any substantive answers to any of the questions. There are serious concerns about the increased number of lorries, for Heathrow freight, that are likely to blight neighbourhoods close to Heathrow if a 3rd runway is built, and this would probably contribute to worse air pollution locally. Heathrow has "pledged" that with a 3rd runway there would be no increase in road trips. (How this could be monitored, let alone enforced, is never stated). It is unclear how there could be a 50% increase in air freight, with no additional road vehicle trips, but Heathrow stresses the allegedly huge benefits to the UK of the additional air freight. John Hayes reply includes waffly non-committal statements like: "It is important to appreciate that, as we move to the point at which Heathrow Airport Ltd lodges its planning application, it will be expected to provide that kind of detailed analysis as part of the planning process." And "It is absolutely right that a plan anticipating changes in freight movements is made and is subject to scrutiny and debate. We will inspect that plan, and the Government will expect the developers at Heathrow to deliver a cogent, well argued, proper assessment of the impact of any changes in the volume or character of freight traffic ...."
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Progress on green aircraft taxiing solutions is slow – unlikely to make huge improvements in fuel use or NO2?
For several years there have been attempts to cut the amount of aircraft engine noise and CO2 emissions from taxiing. Worldwide perhaps 2.6% or so of total aviation carbon emissions might be from taxiing, and it increases noise close to the airport. Some of the electrical solutions to the problem have come to nothing, and been quietly dropped. eg. a Honeywell/Safran EGTS joint venture that was abandoned last year, and a joint venture involving L-3 and Crane Aerospace, called GreenTaxi, also disappeared. There are two remaining possible systems: WheelTug nose wheel electric drive system and IAI’s TaxiBot semi-robotic pilot-controlled vehicle. IATA is enthusiastic about how these will cut fuel consumption from taxiing in future, and there is a conference on the subject in Singapore in May. The aviation lobby group "Sustainable Aviation" has said Heathrow could eventually, if there was the technology, cut "100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year". That is about 0.5% of its total emissions of some 19MtCO2. WheelTug requires a plant to be modified, and the APU to power two motors on the front wheel. Neither Boeing nor Airbus is supporting the development. The TaxiBot system is further down the certification route since it does not require modification to an aircraft. It lifts and holds the aircraft nose wheel, and then transports the aircraft without using the aircraft’s own engines.
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Plans for third runway at Heathrow ‘will blight 47,000 additional homes with dangerous levels of air pollution’
The Daily Mail reports that a 3rd Heathrow runway would expose 47,000 additional homes to dangerous air pollution from NO2 because more vehicles will travel to the airport. The runway would cause a rise in the number of cars, coaches and lorries - raising levels of NO2, that come especially from diesel engines. The Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) says the runway would rise breaching air pollution limits, and that is a key barrier to it being built. The EAC has ‘no confidence’ the Government can meet its target to fix the problem, or that 60% of all new cars would be ultra-low emissions by 2030. Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show 1.29 million new diesel cars were registered last year, which was 48% of all new car purchases. EAC Chair, Mary Creagh, said there was no evidence of any “step change” in the Government’s approach that the Committee had called for in their previous report. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has proposed a £3,500 diesel scrappage scheme to pay people to replace their old diesel cars, but this may not be popular. As well as over 47,000 homes likely to be exposed to worse air pollution, due to Heathrow expansion, the air near Wraysbury Reservoir (a SSSI for birds) would also be have illegal air pollution. The Supreme Court has ordered the Government to produce a new air pollution strategy by April, after ruling that its Air Quality Plan is based on ‘optimistic emissions data’.