Battery and Hydrogen-powered Aircraft

Baroness Randerson Excerpts

Thursday 30th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I am grateful for the noble Lord’s wisdom, and, as someone who travels from Wales, I appreciate his comments.

[Baroness Randerson (LD)]

My Lords, the Government’s Jet Zero strategy set a target for domestic flights to reach net zero by 2040, but instead there has been a big increase in internal flights taken by private planes and helicopters, and many of those journeys could have been made more quickly by train. Can the Minister tell us what the Government are doing to discourage the use of private internal flights? Perhaps he can also have a word with his right honourable friend the Prime Minister to suggest that he might favour other forms of transport rather than private jets and helicopters.

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

There are security issues for the Prime Minister, which I am sure the noble Baroness will appreciate. It is still a free world and people can choose how they want to travel, and we must remember that although we are anti-emissions, we are not anti-flying. We must reduce emissions from aviation while retaining our ability to fly.