My Way Of Thinking Mark Carwardine

The conservationist discusses Britain’s new fossil fuel projects, from airports to coal mines, and invites your thoughts on the subject.

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I’m exasperated by the number of naive and self-serving politicians who argue that new carbon- intensive industries ‘will boost the local economy’. Everyone from ministers to local councillors have been giving the green light to so many ill-considered schemes it’s hard to believe they’ve even heard of the climate crisis.

Take the new £150m terminal at Leeds Bradford Airport. It’s all very well for the director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership to embellish the green credentials of the building itself, but what about the proposed increase in annual capacity from four million passengers to seven million? As one campaigner pointed out, it’s like cutting down the Amazon rainforest with an environmentally friendly axe. That extra capacity would require at least 15,000 more flights every year, resulting in a 75 per cent increase in emissions over the next 10 years. Yet Leeds City Council approved the expansion, claiming that carbon emissions from international flights “should be primarily tackled at a national level”.