Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage airports to become carbon neutral.

The Government’s climate change targets include airport emissions, and so airports will need to reach net zero by 2050.

Airport emissions are largely generated by surface access and power and heat generation, both of which will be addressed through measures targeted at those sectors. For example, this includes an investment of nearly £1.5 billion? to support the transition to ultra-low emission vehicles, with grants available for plug-in vehicles and schemes to support chargepoint infrastructure. We are also consulting on bringing forward our ambition to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans forward to 2035 or earlier, as per the advice of the Committee on Climate Change.

Airports are not legally responsible for emissions from aircraft operations.

On emissions from aircraft operations, we are planning to consult shortly to update the Government’s position on aviation and climate change. It is critical that we consider how the aviation sector can play its part in delivering our net zero ambitions.