Labour Trips on the Aviation Runway

Since winning the UK general election in July, the Labour government has taken some strong early steps to push forward climate action, such as introducing Great British Energy, a new publicly owned energy company, and scrapping the onshore wind ban. It may have just made its first environmental blunder.

On Monday, ministers approved London City Airport’s expansion plans, directly countering the recommendation from the Climate Change Commission, a government advisory body, that “there should be no net expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory.” It’s safe to say that the criteria haven’t been met.