"The UK committed to binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets under the Climate Change Act 2008. Under the Act, GHGs must be 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. We are the first country in the world to have such a framework and under the Act the Government sets binding five year budgets. In 2009, we set out the carbon budgets for the first three five year periods from 2008-22.
Domestic aviation emissions are included in budgets. International aviation emissions are outside of the UK’s carbon budgeting framework under the Climate Change Act. This is mainly due to the global nature of the sector, which makes it difficult to allocate emissions on a national basis.
Government must either include international aviation and shipping emissions in UK carbon budgets by the end of 2012, or report to Parliament on why they are being kept outside. However, we believe that a global, sectoral approach is more appropriate for aviation. This would, in effect, make aircraft operators responsible for their emissions, rather than countries.
Even though international aviation is not included in the Climate Change Act, the UK still has one of the toughest aviation climate change regimes in the world. In 2009 we set a long-term target for UK aviation CO2 emissions that they should be lower in 2050 than in 2005 (equivalent to 37.5 million tonnes of CO2). The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) provided advice to us on this target in December 2009.
The CCC report makes clear that, even in the least optimistic case (the ‘likely’ case), the target can still be achieved while allowing significant growth in air travel (CCC describe this as a 60% growth in passenger numbers or a 54% growth in air traffic movements). The report also states that ‘there are no implications for specific airports e.g. Heathrow’ and advises instead that any future growth should consider the environmental implications, and ensure consistency with climate change goals.
The Government remains committed to its policy framework for aviation set out in the 2003 White Paper, The Future of Air Transport. We have also committed to producing a National Policy Statement on Airports in 2011 which will take account of all relevant developments since 2003, including of course this recently published advice from the CCC."
