UK: Heathrow’s third runway hit by carbon limits warning

Plans to build a third Heathrow runway have suffered a setback after the government’s official climate advisers warned ministers the project risked blowing a hole in the UK’s legally binding carbon targets. In a development that will bolster the runway’s opponents, Lord Deben, chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, has written to Greg Clark, the business and energy secretary, to raise “concerns” about the plans. The Conservative peer said the central business case ministers made in October when they agreed to back a new runway would mean greenhouse gas emissions from aviation were about 15% higher by 2050 than what they were in 2005. But the committee, which advises ministers on how to meet the goals of the 2008 Climate Change Act, has said repeatedly that aviation emissions should stay at 2005 levels until 2050 if those targets are to be met. The law requires sweeping cuts in carbon pollution from cars, factories, power stations and buildings so that by 2050, overall emissions are 80% less than what they were in 1990. Allowing the aviation industry to stick to its 2005 levels of pollution means these other sectors already have to cut their emissions by 85%, Lord Deben said in the letter, dated Tuesday.<br/>