Text and images © Greenpeace. Aircraft G-CIVY, one of the last two British Airways Boeing 747-400 aircraft takes off for its last flight departure from London’s Heathrow Airport, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. Relying on something that doesn’t yet exist is extremely risky. The airport, which is owned by a consortium including Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial and the Qatari state, appealed to the CAA to increase charges after the Covid-19 pandemic brought air travel to a near-standstill. Paris of course being the agreement, currently between every country on earth, to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in order to keep global temperature increases below 1.5ºC. We take the security of your data seriously. whether it can recharge airlines £500m for costs in preparation for the building of a third runway. British Airways owner IAG welcomed the announcement and said it was “staggering” that Heathrow was seeking to recoup losses. We intend to respond robustly to the CAA.”. But campaigners – some of whom have been fighting for decades to stop the runway – will hold in the back of their minds the words of another Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, even as they celebrate the appeal court ruling. Here’s how things would change if we invested £10 billion more every year into fair, sustainable and affordable transport. Greenpeace Environmental Trust (Charity No. Heathrow operates under a regulatory mechanism that allows it to increase airport charges based on the costs it incurs. This latest legal challenge – at a time of acute and growing public concern about climate change – might just prove decisive for Heathrow Airport Ltd, and political supporters of its project. The environmental groups Friends of the Earth and Plan B argued the expansion would jeopardise the UK’s ability to make the very deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that are necessary to stop global warming from causing catastrophic and irreversible impacts. Your information is safe and secure with us – read our privacy policy. The Civil Aviation Authority said the demands by Europe’s busiest airport were not “proportionate”. Campaign groups opposed to airport expansion – including Greenpeace – responded with a series of judicial reviews, no less than five of them. Meanwhile, increased plane efficiency will have a limited impact on emissions, and using biofuels risks prioritising crops grown for fuel over crops grown for food because they’re more profitable. The Supreme Court this week considered an appeal by Heathrow after the Court of Appeal blocked the building of a third runway on environmental grounds earlier this year. The most northerly youth climate strike ever! The airline, which is in talks with government officials over a state bailout in return for Oslo taking a stake, employs more than 1,100 pilots and cabin crew at Gatwick. The government would still be faced with the challenge of wanting to expand airports, while at the same time needing to bring down carbon emissions. Later this year, the UK will host COP26, the global climate conference in which governments will hopefully commit to further action to put the brakes on the climate crisis. Nearly half of UK people don’t take a single flight in any one year. A spokesman for Norwegian said: “The Covid-19 pandemic continues to severely impact our business and this prolonged crisis is far from over. But what exactly has happened, and does this mean expanding Heathrow is completely off the cards? Of course, if the government were treating the climate crisis with the seriousness it deserves, it would abandon airport expansion completely. But the prime minister has always been against the third runway, and the government has told the court it will not be appealing against its decision on Thursday. 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