Climate Emergency Manchester has produced a short briefing note about Manchester Airport and its future economic role within the city and Council (as a shareholder of Manchester Airports Group). The airport will be discussed at the Economy Scrutiny Committee meeting on Thur 10th March at 2pm or watched online here.
The briefing note asks 2 questions:
- How can such a large emitter in the city and enabler of even further emissions continue to grow as currently planned whilst also delivering on an ambitious target to be net zero by 2038?
- How can the airport justify allowing the operation of ghost flights and think it can still claim to be leading on reducing their CO2 emissions or taking a fair contribution of cutting its emissions?
The briefing note also recommends that:
- The inequality of who flies from the airport (mainly residents of affluent wards in Manchester and beyond) must be taken into account when looking at the future development plans of the airport – are the economic benefits for the few outweighing the environmental risks to the many?
- The Council should use its powers within the Localism Act to commit to not permit further expansion of the airport passenger capacity beyond 2019 levels until 2030 and only then on contingent of their being viable new technologies that enable zero carbon air travel.
