Climate activists held the largest anti-airport protest in British history. Expect more worldwide.
Earlier this month, UK climate activists demonstrated against the planned expansion of 10 airports in what was the largest anti-airport protest in British history. The UK government had recently rejected one of its own agencies’ scientific advice, which said that expanding airports in London, Glasgow, Southampton and elsewhere would conflict with the government’s net-zero climate goals. In the report, titled “Net Zero: Principles for Successful Behaviour Change Initiatives,” the agency recommended reducing demand for high-carbon activities such as air transport. UK protesters aren’t alone. Over the past couple of decades, there’s been a worldwide increase in local anti-airport movements, motivated both by global climate concerns and by local worries about issues such as water pollution and displacing poor or minority communities. They’re likely to continue. Here’s why. In April, British PM Boris Johnson’s government enacted the world’s most ambitious climate-change targets, adding to laws passed since 2019 committing the country to net-zero emissions by 2050. But the government was also pursuing goals at odds with the net-zero targets, including plans to expand airports. In October, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy posted on its website a document detailing the government’s Net Zero Strategy alongside a report of the Behavioural Insights Team, a government research unit, recommending curbing such expansion and aviation subsidies. Climate activist groups such as AirportWatch and local anti-airport groups such as the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise attacked the expansion plans. These groups have opposed airport expansion not only because “the Climate Crisis means we must all fly less,” as one group of activists put it, but also because larger airports generate more air, water and noise pollution at the local level. To dampen the criticism, the government deleted the document from its website within a few hours. That prompted the protests. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2021-11-24/general/climate-activists-held-the-largest-anti-airport-protest-in-british-history-expect-more-worldwide
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Climate activists held the largest anti-airport protest in British history. Expect more worldwide.
Earlier this month, UK climate activists demonstrated against the planned expansion of 10 airports in what was the largest anti-airport protest in British history. The UK government had recently rejected one of its own agencies’ scientific advice, which said that expanding airports in London, Glasgow, Southampton and elsewhere would conflict with the government’s net-zero climate goals. In the report, titled “Net Zero: Principles for Successful Behaviour Change Initiatives,” the agency recommended reducing demand for high-carbon activities such as air transport. UK protesters aren’t alone. Over the past couple of decades, there’s been a worldwide increase in local anti-airport movements, motivated both by global climate concerns and by local worries about issues such as water pollution and displacing poor or minority communities. They’re likely to continue. Here’s why. In April, British PM Boris Johnson’s government enacted the world’s most ambitious climate-change targets, adding to laws passed since 2019 committing the country to net-zero emissions by 2050. But the government was also pursuing goals at odds with the net-zero targets, including plans to expand airports. In October, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy posted on its website a document detailing the government’s Net Zero Strategy alongside a report of the Behavioural Insights Team, a government research unit, recommending curbing such expansion and aviation subsidies. Climate activist groups such as AirportWatch and local anti-airport groups such as the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise attacked the expansion plans. These groups have opposed airport expansion not only because “the Climate Crisis means we must all fly less,” as one group of activists put it, but also because larger airports generate more air, water and noise pollution at the local level. To dampen the criticism, the government deleted the document from its website within a few hours. That prompted the protests. Story has more.<br/>
