Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2019 to Question 256996 on regional airports: air pollution, what criteria his Department uses to define material impact in determining how a project affects the Government's ability to meet its carbon reductions target.

The Government recognises that climate change is one of the most urgent and pressing challenges we face and we are working to ensure the UK takes a leading role in tackling it.

In December 2018 the Government published a green paper consultation for a new aviation strategy, ‘Aviation 2050 – The future of UK aviation’. It commits the Government to ensure that the aviation sector plays its part by limiting greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to achieving the UK’s domestic and international climate change obligations.

The green paper also includes a proposal that “planning applications for capacity growth provide a full assessment of emissions, drawing on all feasible, cost-effective measures to limit their climate impact and demonstrate that their project will not have a material impact on the Government’s ability to meet its carbon reduction targets”. However, this proposal is still subject to consultation and is not yet the Government’s policy. The consultation closes on 20 June.

On 2 May the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) published advice to government, recommending the UK legislates for a 2050 net zero greenhouse gas emissions target. We await aviation specific advice from the CCC and will take this into consideration in the development of Aviation 2050, which is due to be published later this year.