You know something strange is afoot when four politicians from conflicting corners of the political spectrum find themselves in agreement, and even more so when it comes in the middle of a hard fought mayoral campaign.
Yesterday, instead of spending their energy fighting each other for the support of Londoners, all four candidates - representing Labour, Conservatives, Lib Dems and the Greens - have joined forces to fight the expansion of Heathrow. In an advert published this morning in several newspapers Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick and Sian Berry slam the government's plan to almost double the number of flights in and out of Heathrow.
And they're not alone in their opposition. A recent opinion poll showed that over 70% of people are opposed to aviation expansion.
The fact that the candidates have put aside their differences and that Gordon Brown finds himself increasingly isolated on the issue comes as no surprise to those of us who recognise the gravity of climate change. The proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow would be bad news for global warming and deeply disturbing for people living under the flight path.
The proposal is currently the subject of a "public consultation", even though the Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, has already caved into pressure from the aviation lobby and announced that expansion must go ahead. Kelly assures us that in spite of the government's plans for a third runway the UK will be able to meet their targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% or even 80% by 2050. But climate scientists at the Tyndall research centre disagree. They've calculated that if aviation expands as projected, Britain will have to totally decarbonise the rest of its economy by 2050 to effectively tackle climate change.
That's because flying is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, doubling in the 1990s. Already the government has admitted that flights from and within the UK account for 13% of the UK's climate impact (the industry says 6% but ignores the fact that greenhouse gases create more global warming when emitted at altitude.) As the years roll by aviation will take up more and more of this country's carbon budget.
That the UK's emissions from aviation are spiralling is hardly surprising given that this government has promoted the binge flying culture. We Brits fly more than any other nation in the world and as a result we create far more carbon emissions per head from aviation than people from any other country - nearly 40% higher than the second placed country, Ireland, and more than twice as much as Americans.
And a rapidly growing number of our flights are to destinations that could easily be reached by train. If Brown focused on getting people off short haul flights and on to the railways we could reduce the climate impact of Heathrow instead of vastly increasing it. Recent research found that a fifth of the total flights from Heathrow are to places that could be easily reached by train. If these flights were cut, flight numbers at Heathrow would be at the level they were at in the mid-1990s and we wouldn't need a third runway.
When you also consider the huge impact a third runway would have on Londoners - with more noise and pollution, and villages paved over - it's hardly surprising that the mayoral candidates put away their differences for a moment and spoke with one voice.
