Government misleading public with "zero emissions airport" claim

The government is running a consultation on “zero emissions airports”. They’ve forgotten just one thing: the 95% of aviation emissions from the flights themselves!

We’re one of a group of environmental campaign groups and aviation experts including Transport & Environment (T&E), the Aviation Environment Federation (AEF), Green Alliance, Friends of the Earth, Opportunity Green and Greenpeace who have written to the government to express concern that the Department for Transport’s current consultation on a “2040 zero emissions airport target” risks misleading consumers and pushing the UK’s climate targets off track.

We think that the consultation risks giving the public the “false impression” that flights will be zero emission by 2040. The government has said that it intends the zero emissions airport policy to provide “a social licence for the growth” of the aviation industry, which could in fact result in emissions increases.

The “false impression” the letter discusses arises from the lack of clarity for the public that, even if an airport’s ground operations are decarbonised , this will not change the 95% of aviation emissions which derive from planes flying. It is relatively easy and simple to decarbonise airports’ ground operations, and only around 5% of emissions from aviation actually come from airport operations and surface transport anyway.

Many airports across the UK are currently seeking permission to expand, which would lock in additional millions of tonnes of emissions per year. Due to the distinction between emissions from airport operations and emissions from flights being unclear in both airports’ claims and the government’s consultation, the public could be led to the mistaken belief that imminent airport expansion will not contribute to the climate crisis, and that clean flying is right around the corner.

Airports are already making claims about their climate impacts which could mislead consumers. Heathrow Airport, for example, has claimed that it will “hit our net zero goals in the air and on the ground by 2030,” despite the airport having no plans to have net zero air operations by 2030.

Our letter calls for an immediate moratorium on all airport expansions, as recommended by the Climate Change Committee, and a reframe of the 2040 target as “zero emission airport operations” - rather than portraying the target in a way that could be interpreted as including flights.

Alethea Warrington, senior campaigner at climate charity Possible, said:

“The government’s support for airport expansion in the midst of the climate emergency is just plain irresponsible. Airports are already making claims about their emissions plans which could really mislead the public, because they don’t include the 95% of emissions which come from flights - which airports want to increase. To cut emissions from aviation in line with climate targets, no airport should be allowed to expand. And we need to go further, by limiting demand for flights by taxing the small group of people who take most of the flights.”

Cait Hewitt, Policy Director at AEF, said:

“This looks like a deliberate strategy from the Government to win over the public on airport expansion by creating the impression that flying will be zero emission by 2040. If ministers want to avoid greenwashing the aviation sector they should require airports to publicly report the emissions from their flights alongside any claims about their efforts to achieve zero emissions operations from airport buildings and ground vehicles.”

David Kay, Legal Manager at Opportunity Green, said: 

“Whilst the aim of net zero operations at UK airports might be laudable, the Government’s ‘2040 zero emissions airport target’ should be careful not to mislead people about the climate impacts of flying.

“People go to airports to catch flights. Calling them ‘zero emissions airports’ masks the 95% of aviation emissions that derive from the flights themselves - emissions that contribute significantly to global warming and will likely result in aviation becoming one of the world’s largest emitting sectors by 2050. This risks providing false reassurance to customers, creating a misleading ‘social licence for growth’. This could dangerously undermine the urgent need to reduce flying to meet the UK’s climate targets and protect our planet for current and future generations.”