Campaigners call on Government to drop its ‘fantasy’ third runway at Heathrow.
Campaigners from HACAN (Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise) and NoTRAG (No Third Runway Action Group) called on the Government to drop its ‘fantasy’ third runway at Heathrow following the publication of the report on aviation from the Government-appointed Committee on Climate Change. The Committee was asked to examine whether the Government’s aviation policy was consistent with its target to cut all CO2 emissions in the UK by 80% by 2050. It found that the Government has no chance of meeting its targets to cut emissions unless it slashes future growth levels from 200% by 2050 to 60% (1).
The Committee has been very careful not to say where expansion could take place. It argues that decision must be taken at a political level. It admits that a third runway at Heathrow, plus a couple of other new runways (possibly at Gatwick and Stansted), would not breach the 60% target but only if there was virtually no growth anywhere else.
John Stewart, Chair of HACAN, said, “The message of this report is not that it endorses new runways but that it has killed of the Government’s programme of aggressive expansion of aviation. The 2003 Aviation White Paper is now dead in the water. Unless the Government tears it up, all its fine-sounding words at Copenhagen to reduce emissions will be meaningless.”
Geraldine Nicholson, Chair of NoTRAG, said, “The Government needs to get real and drop its fantasy runway at Heathrow. No way should so many homes continue to be blighted just because the Government wants to live out its fantasy.”
ENDS