'Green Heathrow' – a global embarrassment for the UK

The government has employed the most dangerous greenwash of our times today by dubbing the announcement of the third runway, 'green Heathrow'.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement said:

"We’re incredibly angry about this disastrous decision. I'm in my 40s but I'll probably be dead by the time the aviation industry has to take responsibility for its carbon emissions.

"Dubbing this climate killing project ‘the green Heathrow’ is the most dangerous greenwash of our times. It’s like calling a new motorway ‘green’ because it has a cycle path. The aviation industry has just been given free rein to pollute while other sectors of industry and the British public will be forced to cut emissions. This new runway instantly undermines all the UK’s hard won commitments on climate change; it makes a mockery of the new UK climate law; and embarrasses us on the world stage. This is an insult to people in developing countries and a slap in the face for global progress for an international deal on climate change.

"The government’s claim that increases in emissions from aviation will be dealt through carbon trading in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme is a dangerous red herring. There are so many loopholes in the scheme, it is virtually meaningless. There is evidence already which predicts that the price of carbon is too low and that it will have little effect in reducing emissions from aviation.

"Gordon Brown claims to care about international development. But across the world, poor people are already dealing with rising sea-levels, lack of access to water and extreme weather phenomena like, cyclones and typhoons and they will be losing faith in the UK’s promises. The third runway will eventually produce the same annual carbon emissions as Kenya and this is shameful."

Notes to editors

• WDM estimates that with the introduction of a third runway, Heathrow’s annual CO2eq emissions from flying will increase by 11.7 million tonnes of CO2eq.
• WDM has estimated that the 11.7 million tonnes figure through the predicted increase in passenger numbers from the third runway, and the current passenger numbers and CO2 emissions for UK aviation as a whole.
• The information on increased passenger activity due to a third runway was from a written parliamentary answer by Merron Gillian (16 May 2007).
• This is almost the same as the whole of Kenya’s annual CO2eq output. Kenya’s current CO2eq emissions are 11 million tonnes of CO2eq

Figures are available from Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) version 6.0. (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2009). Available at http://cait.wri.org.

• The World Development Movement campaigns to tackle the root causes of poverty. WDM believes that charity is not enough and aims to change the policies that keep the developing world poor. It is a democratic and politically independent organisation with 15,000 supporters and 70 local groups across the UK. For more information, go to www.wdm.org.uk

Kate Blagojevic
Press officer, World Development Movement
0207 820 4900/4913, 07711 875 345, Email: kate.blagojevic@wdm.org.uk