The aims of the Consultation are to gather evidence on the:
- Definition of airport operations
- Emissions sources that should be included within the target.
To provide a better understanding —
- To which entities the target should apply
- The type and size of airport the target should be applied to
- Potential regulatory or voluntary approaches that could be used to implement the target.
- How the proposed target could be aligned with current schemes, such as the Airports Council International Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme.
- The barriers and opportunities which may exist in implementing the target, including commercial feasibility.
- What the appropriate measuring and reporting processes should be.
This Consultation will close at the beginning of May, so that gives plenty of time to digest the questionnaire, and to enable your responses to be the best they can be.
This month (February 2023) is also the month specified by Luton Rising for the submission of its Development Consent Order application to Central Government. This application will be thousands of pages long and should cover all the aspects of the development including those covered by this Government consultation.
This of course begs the question, how can that application cover all these points, when Policy is still being consulted on and defined?
Let us not forget that Luton Borough Council’s Climate Emergency plan steadfastly refuses to include aircraft movements, and passenger vehicle traffic at the airport. Luton Rising therefore adopts the same attitude. But also, that the airport operator’s own plan (i.e., the plan for London Luton Airport Operations Ltd) does not include it either. In both cases, the mantra is these emissions issues which contribute over 90% of airport emissions, are down to the airlines and passenger personal choice, and therefore not ours to dictate on.
This is why we ask you to engage with this Government exercise, and to push these issues into legally binding Government Policy in England.
For far too long it has been a case for Government and airports of making it up as they go along. They state that Climate Change and tackling public health issues caused by airport operations are paramount, but maybe not as paramount as commercial income which has always trumped these crucial issues.