Category Archives: Heathrow third runway

‘There’s something in the air’: UK airport expansion gears up for takeoff

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Lobbyists are increasingly confident about expansion plans as concerns for the economy start to deepen

The younger, tormented minister mulling his position before the Labour government granted Heathrow’s third runway in 2009 might have been greatly relieved to know that, 15 years later, not a shovel would have touched the ground.

But now, returning to power with a revamped energy and climate brief, Ed Miliband again finds himself in a cabinet which, many in aviation hope, may usher in bigger airports and more flights – as well as enough CO2 emissions to outweigh any new solar farms.

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UK airports say they can reach net zero and still expand. Is it just pie in the sky?

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Despite the Climate Change Committee’s warnings to stop growing capacity, Gatwick is gearing up for another try at a second runway

So what bit of “no new airport capacity” did airports not understand? The Climate Change Committee (CCC) spelled it out again on Wednesday: flying accounted for 7% of UK carbon emissions last year, the trend is upwards, and more airport capacity is “incompatible” with national net zero targets.

Of course, they’ve said it before: but as the committee noted in its 2023 progress report, airports have since have been racing to expand. This time, hammering it home, the CCC says that no expansion at all should go ahead until the government sorts out a proper way to manage it.

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Future shock: how will Covid change the course of business?

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The crisis poses a deadly threat to some sectors and creates opportunities for others. We examine how they will fare in 2021

Coronavirus has changed lives and industries across the UK, accelerating fundamental shifts in behaviour and consumption that were already on their way. Debates about home working, preserving local high streets and the ethics of air travel were bubbling away before coronavirus rampaged across the world, but the consequences of the worst pandemic in more than a century have either settled those arguments or boosted the momentum behind certain lifestyle changes. Here we look at how those debates have been changed – or resolved – by Covid-19.

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Ministers face fresh legal challenge over Heathrow airport plans

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Critics say plan for third runway runs counter to UK’s legally binding target of net zero emissions by 2050

The government faces a legal challenge over its plan to expand Heathrow airport, with lawyers and environmentalists demanding it review its policy in line with its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on public interest cases including environmentalism and tackling poverty, argues that the government must update its plan for a third runway to take into account the emissions pledge it made following the approval for the airport expansion in June 2018.

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Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change

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Appeal court says decision to give go-ahead not consistent with Paris agreement

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s commitments to tackle the climate crisis.

The ruling is a major blow to the project at a time when public concern about the climate emergency is rising fast and the government has set a target in law of net zero emissions by 2050. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, could use the ruling to abandon the project, or the government could draw up a new policy document to approve the runway.

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‘Climate emergency’ edict in UK to shape decision on Heathrow expansion review

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Britain’s net zero by 2050 goal may have impact on whether existing policies are reassessed

Britain’s move to “net zero” carbon and the declaration of a climate emergency in parliament will be “given careful consideration” in deciding whether to grant a review of Heathrow airport’s expansion, the government has said.

The new approach falls well short of any commitment to review Heathrow’s expansion, but means the decision on whether to grant campaigners’ request for a review will include the net zero target and the climate emergency among its criteria.

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