Comment: Plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport

Reacting to the announcement by the Chancellor that the Government supports plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport, Environmental Audit Committee Chair, Toby Perkins MP, said:

“The new era for cleaner, greener aviation promised by Ministers must now be turbocharged as the Government gives its backing to a third runway at Heathrow. I welcome the Chancellor's commitment that any proposal must meet strict rules on noise, air quality and carbon emissions, but more detail is desperately needed on how this will be achieved. Aviation could be the largest emitting sector in the UK by 2050, and noise and air pollution from Heathrow already has a significant effect on the urban environment of west London.

“I reiterate calls from our predecessor Committee for the Government to honour its 2021 commitment to legislate to include international aviation emissions in Carbon Budgets from 2033, and to consider urgently the policy measures required to mitigate other environmental impacts such as soot emissions and aviation sulphur compound emissions. If Sustainable Aviation Fuel is considered the silver bullet, efforts to secure a globally recognised definition of acceptable SAFs must be ramped up, and the SAFs to be developed in the UK and used in aviation services at UK airports must be truly sustainable. Ministers must demand that the industry deliver the promised year on year emissions reductions which underpin current Government strategy.”

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