Stansted expansion – Greenpeace response

In response to the government ‘welcoming‘ a £1.1 billion plan to expand Stansted Airport, Paul Morozzo, climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said :

“The only way to get aviation emissions to drop in line with our obligations is with at least some demand restraint, making any expansion either a stranded asset or a source of climate emissions that others will have to pay to counteract. Allowing high-carbon industries to expand completely contradicts the climate case for the ‘tidal wave of clean investment’ this government is trying to base our economic recovery around. The shambolic state of aviation’s greenwashing efforts, with all of their missed targets, abandoned pledges, unaffordable techno-fix optimism and pathetic token gestures like Stansted’s EV charging station, show very clearly that this is an industry that has neither the ability nor the intention to operate sustainably. This looks very much like our new government talking the talk on decarbonisation, but following the last government’s strategy of kicking aviation’s carbon can down the runway for the next government to deal with, when it will be even more expensive and disruptive to do so.”