Heathrow third runway will hit regional airports - Yorkshire Post Letters

NOW that the Government has adopted the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations on carbon targets, they 
have accepted that any 
expansion of Heathrow will 
need to be offset by restrictions 
and closures of regional 
airports.

The Government’s carbon policy advisers had already stated that there would be no room for a net expansion of aviation in the sixth carbon budget.

Yet, now, the Government 
has not only committed to reducing carbon emissions by 78 per cent (against 1990 levels) in advance of 2035; but, for the 
very first time, it is demanding that aviation emissions are included within targets for reductions.

So any future expansion of Heathrow, in the already economically advantaged 
South East, would need to be offset by restrictions, such a reductions in operations, or closures at regional airports across the UK.

This could include airports across the North of England. The carbon budget’s mathematics confirms Heathrow expansion will render it necessary.

Such a policy would of course represent an abandonment of the Government’s levelling-up agenda.