How little does this Government care about the climate? The reckless decision to expand Gatwick Airport for the express benefit of wealthy frequent flyers will come at the cost of local residents’ peace and meeting our crucial global targets. Good job, Labour.
Earlier this week, the World Athletics president and gold medallist Seb Coe spoke about the need to “re-engineer” the Olympic calendar due to the ongoing impacts of climate change. This dramatic adaptation to our new reality begs the question: what is this Labour Government playing at, actively doing more harm with its airport obsession?
It is not just airports. More than a year into its new administration, it is fair to conclude now that Labour is persistently making terrible climate decisions. A significant chunk of ministerial time this year has been dedicated to writing developer-friendly deregulation at the expense of nature. The prime minister’s bizarre claim in March that spiders have prevented entire towns from being built would be hilarious – if we weren’t one of the most nature-depleted countries on earth.
Labour’s planning bill will allow developers to pay cash to trash wildlife. By letting them pay into a vaguely run nature restoration fund to improve habitats elsewhere, instead of protecting those within their new housing estates, they are cutting out any effort to preserve pockets of nature within a development site, and depriving new residents of a carefully planned home alongside green spaces. And let us not forget that, in January, the party whips further delayed the Climate and Nature Bill, blocking Labour MPs from voting for much-needed action to tackle the nature crisis.
Naturally, Labour’s love affair with polluting transport extends to road building, with approval already granted for the £9 billion Lower Thames Crossing, which is expected to ease congestion on the Dartford Crossing for only five years while clogging up surrounding towns and villages across a huge area of Kent and Essex. With this commitment to old-school “predict and provide” on road traffic, how long will it be before a multi-billion-pound relief road is suggested to cut congestion on the Lower Thames Crossing?
Add to all this, rumblings over the weekend of a U-turn on Labour’s only recently announced ban on new North Sea oil drilling, coupled with Trump’s pointed remarks about it during his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, and it becomes clear that this is no kind of green government at all.
While ministers cannot stop claiming that airport expansion is intended to “boost economic growth,” in reality, there are many, many better ways to create good, long-term jobs. This is particularly true in my part of the world, where many south coast English towns and cities are struggling post-pandemic to revive their hospitality industries, and where the opportunities for green energy – onshore wind and solar as well as offshore tide and wind power – are massive.
Our region could be a revitalised magnet for UK-based tourism, and, in terms of transport investment, railways across the region are crying out for restoration and improvement. Better rail links could link up and revitalise the whole of the area, just as northern leaders are making the case for Northern Powerhouse rail. With creative, inventive populations located all over the south coast, these are the sustainable jobs the Government needs to focus on.
And where in all this is Ed Miliband, the climate minister who once threatened to resign from Gordon Brown’s cabinet over earlier plans for Heathrow expansion that the coalition government later abandoned? The carbon cost of expanding Heathrow, Luton, and Gatwick alone will cancel out all the benefits of Labour’s keystone clean energy plan, making Miliband’s daunting task of meeting climate targets almost impossible. This week, he is nowhere to be seen, nor taking the stance his job demands against the Transport Secretary’s capitulation to the needs of the very wealthy.
Gatwick expansion should never have been approved. The valid reasons for rejection were rejected, the Planning Inspectorate’s fierce conditions proposed in February were fudged, local residents who engaged for months with the planning examination to make their case against noise, traffic and pollution were ignored. All because the loud and well-funded aviation lobby has this Government’s ear.
Labour is making even worse climate decisions than the Conservatives. The Greens will call them out, even as Labour’s own climate champion is silenced.
Sian Berry is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion and the former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales
