Polling reveals that nearly two thirds of Britons are concerned about the climate impact of Heathrow expansion.
“Heathrow’s third runway project is fuelled by government climate hypocrisy. It would be an emissions disaster and doesn’t even have the public backing that the planners like to assume it has. ”
64% of people, after being told the potential benefits and negatives*, are concerned about the climate impact of building a third runway at Heathrow Airport according to polling released by Friends of the Earth today (14 October). The same survey found that only 1 in 4 people support the plans for a third runway.
A third runway at Heathrow Airport would put 700 more planes into the sky each day – 50% more than the airport currently sees. This would all but blow chances of the UK meeting its targets for cutting emissions and fighting climate breakdown.
Today’s polling comes as Friends of the Earth prepares to take its legal case against Heathrow’s third runway plans to the Court of Appeal on climate grounds. The court will hear an appeal against the High Court’s decision that the government had not breached its sustainable development duties by allowing the expansion of Heathrow. The hearing begins on Thursday 17 October and is expected to last six days.
Jenny Bates, campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:
“Heathrow’s third runway project is fuelled by government climate hypocrisy. It would be an emissions disaster and doesn’t even have the public backing that the planners like to assume it has. Public opinion is emphatically demanding those in power take the climate crisis seriously. This means cutting down the number of planes in our skies, not giving them a massive daily boost.”
Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth, said:
“We simply cannot allow the expansion of high carbon infrastructure projects like the third runway at Heathrow at a time of climate crisis. Expanding Heathrow will not only benefit a minority of people, while leaving us all to suffer the awful impact on the environment, but it will increase emissions and contribute to climate breakdown. The government has admitted that it did not consider the Paris agreement when agreeing to Heathrow expansion – we hope the court of appeal will now agree with us that this is not sustainable development and ignores the needs of future generations.”
Rowan Smith, solicitor in the environmental law team at law firm Leigh Day, said:
“It is clear that the damaging climate change impacts of a third runway will long outlive the 2050 net zero target. The results of this survey confirm the public’s concern that such state of affairs is manifestly unsustainable. We will be putting forward these arguments to challenge the expansion of Heathrow on climate change grounds on behalf of Friends of the Earth at our upcoming Court of Appeal hearing beginning next week.”
