Government gives green light to third runway

We all huddled around a tv in our press department to watch Geoff Hoon's statement in parliament. Unsurprisingly Hoon announced they would approve plans for a third runway at Heathrow. But the irony of stating that the UK would have the strictest regulations on aviation emissions and at the same time allowing the construction of a third runway was lost on what sounded like cows let loose in the Houses of Parliament - I'm assuming those were actually MPs.

Hoon said that use of the new runway would be limited to half capacity, so you've got to ask yourself why build it? With the introduction of a new high speed rail between major cities in the UK which was also supported in the speech, we could eliminate the 100,000 flights a year from Heathrow to cities less than 300 miles away. Passenger numbers at Heathrow would fall to 1990 levels, negating the need for any more runway capacity. Hight speed rail will only make a difference to emissions if it is instead of airport expansion.

Hoon said any additional capacity added to the third runway after than would be reserved for more efficient planes. The aviation industry has already pumped billions into researching more efficient and quieter engines (Rolls Royce alone spent £3bn over the past five years), yet over the past 16 years the average fuel efficiency of jet engines has improved by just 1.5% per year.

Even with this steady improvement we're still talking about more planes, and that means an overall increase in emissions. If engine efficiency were improved by an ambitious 2% per year, this technological progress would be completely wiped out by expanding Heathrow.

If Gordon Brown thinks this is a green runway then he must be colour-blind. The package is designed to patch up a cabinet split and will do very little to reduce the huge environmental impact of an expanded Heathrow, which will now become the single biggest emitter of carbon-dioxide in the country.

Geoff Hoon accepted that there would be a sizable increase in emissions from a new runway, but suggested that electrification of cars would - supposedly - offset those increases. Vehicle electrification was meant to contribute to the government's 20% renewable energy target, not to offset a third runway.

While Hoon announced a new target to cap emissions from aviation at 2005 levels by the year 2050, these new emissions caps aren't even legally binding. The loopholes in this are so big you could fly a jumbo jet through them.

Regardless of what the government has said today, this new runway is far from inevitable and with you're help we are going to confront them every step of the way. We already have over 13,000 people signed up as beneficial owners on the plot of land on the third runway site and we won't be giving it back anytime soon.