SNP accused of ‘greenwashing backroom deal’ over higher Scottish aviation CO2 if Heathrow expands
Documents have shown that the Scottish Government has adopted aviation industry claims that expanding Heathrow would not lead to increased CO2 emissions from Scotland. Logically, if there are many more flights between Scottish airports and Heathrow, that would increase Scotland’s aviation carbon emissions. A memo prepared for Scotland’s First Minister last October, obtained by The Ferret, claims that “there is nothing to suggest that LHR [Heathrow] expansion will have a negative impact on emissions attributable to Scotland”. Environmental groups say it is “worrying to see how closely aligned the Scottish Government appears to be with the aviation lobby,” and argue that the document “casts doubt on how serious the Scottish Government is about reaching its climate targets”. Claims that emissions would not rise are based on the aviation sector’s over-optimistic hopes that remarkable novel fuels will soon be produced (or electric planes will fly using zero-carbon electricity ….) that will mean flying will no longer emit so much carbon. The AEF said the claim that Scotland’s emissions wouldn’t increase as a result of a third runway “suggest[s] some very odd carbon accounting somewhere along the line”.
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SNP accused of ‘greenwashing backroom deal’ over Heathrow expansion
6.3.2022
By Donald Campbell, The Ferret
in Herald Scotland
The Scottish Government has adopted aviation industry claims that expanding Heathrow airport will not lead to increased emissions from Scotland, internal documents show.
Just two years ago, the government calculated that adding a third runway at Heathrow would lead to an additional 600,000 tonnes of climate-warming carbon emissions.
However, a memo prepared for the First Minister last October, obtained by The Ferret, now claims that “there is nothing to suggest that LHR [Heathrow] expansion will have a negative impact on emissions attributable to Scotland”.
Environmental groups say it is “worrying to see how closely aligned the Scottish Government appears to be with the aviation lobby,” and argue that the document “casts doubt on how serious the Scottish Government is about reaching its climate targets”.
The advice to the First Minister, dated October 2021, claims that “emissions from our LHR flights should decrease over time” because of efforts by the industry “to move to…zero emission aircraft” and “introduce sustainable aviation fuels”.
Green groups believe this assessment is dubious. Campaign group the Aviation Environment Federation says the claim that Scotland’s emissions wouldn’t increase as a result of a third runway – even if there’s an increase in flights between Heathrow and Edinburgh – “suggest[s] some very odd carbon accounting somewhere along the line”.
Scottish Ministers have long backed the construction of a third runway at Heathrow, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the airport committing their support in 2016. However, since the government’s declaration that we are facing a global climate emergency, its support for expanding the airport has come under increasing criticism from green groups and opposition parties. The have attacked the government’s approach as “backroom deal” in support of a “climate wrecking project”.
The Ferret has also obtained the minutes of a meeting between the Minister for Transport and the CEO of Heathrow Airport, held in September 2021, just weeks before the publication of the Scottish Government’s aviation consultation. The notes record that Heathrow sees the Scottish Government’s objectives as the “same as theirs”.
During the meeting – which took place less than two months before Glasgow hosted a major international climate summit – Heathrow Airport “offered to help with difficult challenges of balancing economy and decarbonisation,” highlighting the role of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as a “big thing.”
However, critics have warned that SAF is still under development, and “will not be ready to be deployed at scale before the 2030s or even later”. Marie Ferdelman, spokesperson for sustainability charity Transform Scotland, said Scotland needs to see significant, short-term reductions in flying to meet its climate targets, as low-carbon technologies would not be ready at scale soon enough.
“The advice provided to the First Minister on the expansion of Heathrow does not make the scale and speed of emissions reductions that is necessary clear, nor does it address when low carbon technologies will be available and ready to deliver the required carbon reductions, “ she said.
“Whether or not this is deliberate, it certainly obscures that action on aviation emissions is required now.
“It is worrying to see how closely aligned the Scottish Government appears to be with the aviation lobby, particularly in the run up to COP26 and the publication of the deeply flawed consultation on the new aviation strategy, and it casts doubt on how serious the Scottish Government is about reaching its climate targets.”
Cait Hewitt, policy director at the Aviation Environment Federation, described claims that Scotland’s emissions wouldn’t increase as a result of the third runway as “pretty desperate” and said they suggested “some very odd carbon accounting somewhere along the line.”
She called on the Scottish Government to “move on” from its memorandum of understanding with Heathrow, and ”focus on how to bring the aviation sector into line with Scotland’s ambitious climate agenda.”
However a spokesperson for Transport Scotland, the Scottish Government’s transport agency, said that the decision to allow expansion was taken at Westminster. ‘Hubs’ such as Heathrow and Amsterdam would remain important to Scotland, they claimed. “We know the impact aviation has on emissions and that transport is currently one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions. Every sector and industry needs to do more to cut its emissions – transport and aviation is no exception. But we will also always need people, goods and services to move around here in Scotland, across the UK and of course, internationally.”
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Aviation can and will decarbonise, which will supercharge the opportunities for Global Britain. Heathrow is aiming to make 2019 the year of peak carbon with stretching, but realistic targets to cut emissions both on the ground and in the air in the next decade. “But to achieve our goals, policy support from governments across the UK is essential – most pressingly, scaling-up Scotland’s production of and wider use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
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See earlier:
Aviation demand in Scotland needs to fall by one third by 2030 to hit climate aims
The SNP Transport Minister Graeme Dey has demanded “radical behavioural change” in Scots’ transport choices – amid a warning that journeys by both plane and car will need to be permanently cut to end the country’s contribution to the climate crisis. There will need to be a significant reduction in demand for air travel, and technology alone will not achieve the transformational change required. There needs to be a reduction of 33% in the number flight kilometres travelled, between the number in 2019 and 2030. Transport is Scotland’s biggest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, but there is little progress in making cuts. The SNP government has pledged to cut GHG emissions by 75% by 2030 and to become carbon “net zero” by 2045 (5 years ahead of the UK). An independent report, by consultancy Element Energy, says transformational change in individual and business behaviour, alongside shifting travel choices will be needed as well as advances in technology. The SNP Government has been told to rip up its contract with Heathrow which supports it building a 3rd runway, in light of the findings.
Heathrow runway would increase Scotland’s aviation CO2 by more flights Heathrow to Scotland
If Heathrow got a 3rd runway, it is very likely to increase the amount of carbon produced by more flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow, to Heathrow. The extra flights and destinations at Heathrow would entice more Scottish people to fly south, to make the connections. It is estimated this might be an extra 5,000 flights per year (ie. about 14 more per day), with several hundred thousand extra tonnes of CO2. If travellers from Scotland, wanting to fly from Heathrow, took the train, there would be less carbon emitted. Increasing flying, whether from Scottish airports, or from Heathrow, is entirely at odds with Scotland’s aim of cutting carbon emissions and becoming a net-zero country by 2045, which is 5 years earlier than the current (inadequate) UK target of 2050. Colin Howden, director of the sustainable transport alliance, Transform Scotland, said the Scottish government’s plans to cut a tiny bit of aviation carbon by looking at electric planes for some short trips in the Highlands and islands, would be entirely eclipsed by the increase in flights to Heathrow.
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