Heathrow Airport expansion at odds with Britain’s climate goals: Report

Heathrow unveiled its multi-billion-pound expansion plan in 2025, including a long-planned third runway.

LONDON – Britain’s climate advisers warned on Sept 16 that plans to expand London’s Heathrow Airport are incompatible with the country’s legally binding climate goals.

The report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) found that the aviation industry must reach net-zero emissions by 2050 if the expansion is to meet Britain’s climate targets.

“Those conditions do not exist today,” said Nigel Topping, chair of the CCC, the body responsible for advising the government on preparing for climate change.

Heathrow unveiled its multi-billion-pound expansion plan in 2025, including a long-planned third runway, approved by the government after years of legal wrangling and fierce opposition from environmentalists and local residents.

“Government needs to ensure that the aviation industry takes responsibility for the emissions it creates and bears the costs of decarbonisation,” Topping said in a statement.

“This summer’s extreme weather has brought the impacts of climate change into sharp focus. Every tonne of greenhouse gas emissions makes those impacts worse,” he added.

Britain chalked up its hottest summer on record in 2026, for the second year in a row, following months of record-breaking heat that scientists say was worsened by climate change.

New Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Labour government has reiterated its support for the expansion, with his finance minister John Healey arguing that it would help spur economic growth.

“Aviation is one of the most carbon-intensive forms of transport and one of the most difficult to decarbonise,” according to a March 2025 briefing published by the independent information service based in the British Parliament.

According to Heathrow, the expansion works will almost double capacity to up to 150 million passengers per year.

It would be a rare expansion in Europe, where countries are split between efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the needs of a strategic sector that has seen demand grow.

Britain has set a legal target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 87 per cent by 2040, before reaching net zero by 2050.

In its report, the CCC found that “emissions from aviation have more than doubled since 1990, while emissions across Britain’s economy as a whole have halved”.

“Heathrow Airport is currently responsible for around half of the aviation industry’s emissions,” it added.

The committee proposed a net-zero pathway for aviation based on the “polluter pays” principle, combining direct emissions reductions with the purchase of technological solutions such as carbon capture. AFP