The Airport Commission, on behalf of the UK government, has backed proposals for a third runway at Heathrow.
In an article on the Guardian, it is pointed out that "London’s air quality was so bad that the Government did not expect it to meet EU safety thresholds before 2030 - a full two decades later than the European deadline."
In 2012, Heathrow breached safety thresholds for nitrogen dioxide amongst others.
The addition of a third runway brings with it the increase of other modes of transport, such as cars, taxis and buses, to ferry passengers to the airport. These are even bigger contributors to pollution rates than the planes. This will lead, according to ClientEarth lawyer Anna Heslop, to potential new congestion zones, vehicle bans and bus rerouting, amongst other measures in order to offset that damage.
Furthermore, the Guardian article states that "demand for air travel is actually falling in the business sector, with 61% of FTSE 500 companies in one poll saying they expected to travel more by train and 87% expecting to use more video conferencing in future. Most of the demand that the new runway is likely to cater for comes from a relatively small group of wealthy travellers – around 15% of the UK population who take 70% of all flights."
In order to meet the Climate Change Act 2008's target of limiting aviation emissions to 37.5m tonnes of CO2 by 2050, the Aviation Environment Foundation estimates that 36% fewer passengers would have to fly in and out of airports in the southwest, 11% less in Scotland, 14% less in the northwest, and 55% less in the West Midlands.
Cedrec's take
The third runway is a source of much debate and controversy, with Boris Johnson being amongst the biggest detractors of the proposals.
The environmental impact is the main focus. It is widely believed that a third runway will mean that Heathrow and it's general area, will become the biggest emitter for CO2 in the country.
There is an idea that night flights will be banned - sorry to those of you who work night-shifts, though! It means noise pollution in general, through the day, will increase.
It is expected that expanding Heathrow will mean putting part of the M25 in a tunnel. Overall it is estimated the Heathrow scheme would cost taxpayers £5.7bn. This is a huge amount of money. Couple that with the estimated £300 million fines from the EU for failing to meet emissions targets, and the tax payer will be coughing up for a huge bill altogether.
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