Britain’s airlines urged to get ‘greener’

The UK government urged airlines to get “greener” adding that it supported aviation growth but not “at any price”.

The aviation industry needed to do more on not just emissions but also on noise, said Transport Secretary Philip Hammond.

The government has already ruled out an extra third runway at Heathrow and is opposed to additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted airports. Launching a “scoping document” designed to seek views on a new aviation policy, Mr Hammond said: “We are not anti-aviation - we are anti-carbon.”

“The aviation industry needs to do more, not just on emissions but also in terms of its other environmental impacts, particularly noise. The current pace of technological change is not fast enough to reconcile growth on the scale of recent years with meeting our climate change targets or, in relation to some airports, our aspirations on local environmental impacts.”

Mr Hammond said aviation should be able to grow, but to do so, it had to “play its part in delivering our environmental goals and protecting the quality of life of local communities”.

The new policy framework will replace the Labour government’s 2003 Aviation White Paper which supported runway expansion at Stansted and, later, at Heathrow.

A draft aviation policy framework will then be published for consultation in March 2012, with a view to formal adoption by March 2013.

In the document today, the Government said it intended to announce shortly a proposed way forward on night noise from planes, including arrangements for a detailed consultation on a new night-flying regime for Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports.

The government is also seeking views on the concept of setting a “noise envelope” for airports.

This would aim to limit the total noise impact from airport operations, thus defining the “envelope” within which growth would be possible as technology and operations reduce noise impacts per plane.

Friends of the Earth’s transport campaigner Richard Dyer said: “If aviation emissions are allowed to grow other sectors such as housing and motoring will have to make bigger cuts. The industry must be made to play its fair share in tackling climate change.”