Environmentalists urge Reeves to rethink plans for airports and roads
Environmentalists urge Reeves to rethink plans for airports and roads
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Critics say chancellor’s ‘growth at all costs’ plans are not compatible with UK’s climate targets. Rachel Reeves has been accused by environmental experts of putting the climate at risk with high carbon projects including the expansion of Heathrow airport.
The chancellor made airports the central focus of her plan for growth, despite having previously promised to be the first green chancellor and having extolled the benefits of green growth. Environmental leaders have asked her to recommit to green growth, such as the renewable economy and green public transport, rather than expanded aviation and new roads.
Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity and a major donor to the Labour party, said: “New runways are a mistake; we don’t need them. This is the old economy, it grew 0.1% last year while the green one grew 9%. This is where the biggest opportunity for growth is, and it’s sustainable in all senses of the word. That’s the right kind of growth.”.
Reeves did commit to a rail project, promising to create what she described as “Europe’s Silicon Valley” between Oxford and Cambridge, and giving support for a railway between the two university cities. Shaun Spiers, executive director at the thinktank Green Alliance, said: “The chancellor is right to focus on economic renewal, but we cannot have growth at any cost. The economic case for bigger airports and new roads is highly questionable, and it’s crystal clear that pushing ahead with these will fly in the face of the UK’s climate targets. Rachel Reeves recognises that the low carbon economy offers ‘the industrial opportunity of the 21st century’; we should grasp this rather than chasing high-carbon, high-risk projects.”.
