A climate campaigner has repeated calls for West Yorkshire’s Mayor to withdraw her support for Leeds Bradford Airport’s (LBA) expansion plans.
Nick Hodgkinson, who chairs the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA), asked her to rethink her support for expansion amid concerns that more flights would do to the climate.
In response, the Mayor accepted in last week’s article in the T&A that there is “much still to do to decarbonise aviation” but also claimed that LBA expansion would “benefit local communities and the wider Yorkshire region”.
Today, the GALBA activist hit back at the Mayor’s claims, saying: “LBA expansion would mean 1.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere, polluting the climate we depend on. We’ve all seen the devastating consequences of climate change in the Los Angeles wildfires.
“Unfortunately, clean flying is not going to happen at scale for decades. This is why the scientists on the Climate Change Committee have repeatedly said we should not allow airports to expand at this time. Why is the Mayor ignoring expert advice? It’s great that the airport’s bosses want its ground operations to be carbon net zero. But 95% of LBA’s climate pollution comes from planes using the airport, not the terminal building.”
Mr Hodgkinson said the Mayor was right to care about the economy but polluting the climate even more is not going to help.
“A recent report by the Institute of Actuaries revealed the massive threat that climate change poses to our future prosperity,” he added. “The report warned that without urgent action to cut greenhouse gases, the world’s economy will be cut in half from 2070. That’s within the lifetime of our children and grandchildren.
“You can’t dismiss actuaries as ‘treehugging hippies’ – they are hard-headed financial experts who literally do the maths. We ignore them at our peril.”
He said data released last year by the Office for National Statistics, and analysed by the New Economics Foundation, revealed that the link between business flying and economic growth has ‘decoupled’.
Flights for business purposes fell by 29% in 2023, compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, with 3.9 million fewer trips made. UK businesses spent £2.9 billion less (-22%) on air travel in 2023 compared with 2019, despite real GDP growth of 1.8% over the same period.
Mr Hodgkinson added: “The claims made about aviation being good for the economy are hugely over-inflated. There’s been a big fall in business travel but LBA isn’t even a business airport. It’s a holiday airport, taking far more people – and their spending money – out of our region than into it.”
Mayor Brabin said in a statement: “LBA’s Vision 2030 document clearly states how the airport will improve Yorkshire’s connection to the rest of the world.
“This substantial private investment will benefit local communities and the wider Yorkshire region.
“The commitment to net-zero carbon emissions for the airport’s ground operations is a great first step.
“Industry-wide, there’s much still to do to decarbonise aviation as a whole, and I look forward to seeing how Leeds Bradford can contribute to that.
“Alongside my plan for significantly improved public transport in a better-connected West Yorkshire, now is the perfect time to improve the international gateway to our region.”
Leeds Bradford Airport labelled its Vision 2030 plans as ‘bold and ambitious’, and is ‘firm in our stance to build a net-zero carbon future for the airport’.