Electric planes, new fuel: Can Heathrow’s third runway be green?

An independent report for the previous government, external, by Sir Howard Davies, concluded in 2015 that the south east of England needed a new runway and that the “best answer” was an expansion of Heathrow.

Yet by approving a third Heathrow runway, Reeves appears to be conflicting with the advice of the government’s own independent adviser on cutting emissions, the Climate Change Committee (CCC). It has repeatedly cautioned against airport expansion without a framework in place to manage overall national capacity.

In a report to Parliament last July, the committee said, external: “No airport expansions should proceed until a UK-wide capacity management framework is in place to annually assess and, if required, control sector GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions and non-CO2 effects.”

In response, the government said last December, external that it “recognises a role for airport expansion where it provides economic growth and is compatible with our legally binding net zero target and strict environmental standards. We are currently considering our wider approach to decarbonising aviation”.

Ministers could theoretically still stay within the government’s legislated carbon budgets if they increased the rate of emission reductions from other sectors of the economy while allowing aviation emissions to rise.

Yet achieving deeper reductions elsewhere will be difficult and cannot be guaranteed. Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are unlikely to be in power by the time any third Heathrow runway could be finished, many years ahead, frustrating mitigation plans and accountability for its impacts.