Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, has demanded that the Government cancel plans for Heathrow expansion until they can prove their plans are compatible with the UK's climate change obligations. The Greens’ co-leader’s call comes after the Climate Change Committee indicated that expansion at Heathrow risks Britain breaking its climate change targets. This letter comes at the end of the UN climate negotiations in Marrakech where countries across the world have reaffirmed their commitment to the historic Paris Climate Agreement.
In a Parliamentary Question Lucas has asked the Secretary of State at BEIS to confirm that that final approval for Heathrow won’t be given unless there are guarantees that expansion won’t breach climate change obligations.
Caroline Lucas said:
“This letter from the Climate Change Committee blows apart the government’s previous reassurances around airport expansion and climate change. Their projections had used outrageously optimistic assumptions about emissions trading schemes as their basis – and their unreliability is now being exposed. Ministers must not go any further with their plans for Heathrow until this issue is resolved. Building an airport which breaches our climate change targets is entirely out of the question, and ministers might soon come to the same conclusion as the many experts who say that expansion at Heathrow simply doesn’t fit with climate-proofing our economy.”