Expanding airports

That this House considers the Government’s support for the expansion of airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton is in direct contradiction to advice given by the statutory Climate Change Committee (CCC); further considers that airport expansion at this scale will make meeting the UK’s legally binding climate targets all but impossible; notes that these three proposed airport expansion plans alone would cancel out the carbon savings made by the Government’s new Clean Power 2030 Action Plan by 2050; further notes that the Government’s belief that sustainable aviation fuels and airspace modernisation can be relied upon to decarbonise aviation emissions in line with the UK’s climate commitments has been widely criticised by experts as unrealistic; is concerned that despite passenger numbers being expected to grow from 292.2 million passengers per annum in 2018, to 438 million by 2050, the Government has not brought forth proposals for aviation demand management despite the CCC’s repeated recommendation; calls on the Government to urgently operationalise the commitment to include aviation emissions in the 6th Carbon Budget and commit to doing so for future carbon budgets; and further calls on the Government to update the Airports National Policy Statement in line with our climate commitments and to require planning inspectors to consider a cumulative impact assessment when considering applications by airports to expand.