In January 2020, Luton Borough Council (LBC) declared with its usual pomp and sincerity, that the Executive Committee had declared a Climate Change Emergency in Luton, and that 2040 was the target year for the town to be net zero carbon. https://m.luton.gov.uk/Page/Show/news/Pages/Next-steps-to-tackle-Climate-Change-approved-by-Council%E2%80%99s-Executive.aspx?redirectToMobile=True
2040 is going to be a very iconic year in Luton, as that is also the target for poverty to be eradicated in the town. We sincerely hope that both these landmark events will happen, but sadly we doubt either will be even close to being achieved, as they are both based on the psychoneurotic LBC fantasy of Luton Airport Expansion.
In December 2019, LBC published its draft Climate Action Support Plan. This was produced for the Council (no doubt at great expense) by Anthesis, a private concern who do data collection and modelling for companies on environmental issues. Here is a link to this report:-
Luton Airport has its own section in the report, Section 6. It details the fact that 99% of the Carbon Dioxide emissions it produces “are out of its control”, because 51% come from aircraft operations and 48% from vehicle access/on site use. Unlike Section 1, page 8, which details an estimation of the Carbon Dioxide production of the town, Section 6 Page 46, only gives a breakdown per vehicle journey, and aircraft flight cycle, and not a final figure.
The independent article below gives a calculation for the figures for the aircraft movements. This was calculated for air traffic pre-Covid:- https://earthbound.report/2019/11/06/what-is-the-climate-impact-of-luton-airport/
Only in the “through the looking glass world” that LBC inhabits, could a Carbon Dioxide footprint of 773 kilo tonnes (estimated) be a bigger Climate Emergency than the air traffic movements that produce 2.2 million kilo tonnes (estimated), and which will only pollute more whilst aviation technology catches up with LBC greed for income.
Add to this figure the amount of CO2 produced by all the airport vehicle traffic, and the blinkered views of what LBC thinks is acceptable when it comes to actually tackling climate change, and you just have more reinforcement of the belief that the “green growth only” mantra, that airport expansion will be meticulously monitored and not just be the pursuit of commercial income, is just the continued green washing of the truth.
Stop Luton Airport Expansion