Heathrow expansion ‘won’t go ahead’ if it breaks net zero targets, Ed Miliband says

28 January 2025, 01:42

Ed Miliband said a Heathrow expansion with a third runway ‘won’t go ahead’ if it doesn’t meet the Government’s climate targets, as Rachel Reeves hints at support for the plan.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has insisted any airport expansions that are inconsistent with meeting legally-binding limits on UK emissions "won't go ahead".

It follows reports of an intensifying cabinet rift on plans to finally expand Heathrow by adding a third runway - a controversial move that has been debated and delayed for almost 20 years.

But Rachel Reeves revived the idea this week, insisting that the need for economic growth in the UK "trumped other things" - including Net Zero goals.

The Chancellor is widely expected to greenlight plans to build the runway at Heathrow, as well as expansions at Gatwick and Luton in an attempt to boost growth, as she faces increased pressure over the state of the economy.

But the government is held to legally binding carbon budgets, which are decided every five years, to limit the amount of destructive greenhouse gases produced by the UK.

“Any aviation expansion must be justified within carbon budgets, and if it can’t be justified, it won’t go ahead,” Miliband told the environmental audit committee on Monday.

The Energy Secretary, who is leading Government efforts to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030, has been a vocal opponent to the expansion of the west London airport in the past for climate reasons.

But last week, he ruled out resigning from Government if it gives a third runway the go-ahead.

As he faced several questions from MPs, Miliband repeatedly refused to be drawn into speculation about the airport, reiterating the country’s legal obligations to reduce their emissions.

A third runway would increase the number of annual flights at Heathrow from 480,000 to a whopping 720,000, with potentially drastic impacts on noise and climate pollution in London.

The Energy Secretary said any aviation expansion must take place within the UK's carbon budgets, which are part of plans to deliver on the country's 2050 target to reduce emissions by 100% compared with 1990 levels.

Miliband told MPs: "I just want to sort of provide this element of reassurance to you, which is 100% any aviation expansion must be justified within carbon budgets, and if it can't be justified, it won't go ahead."

He later added that he has "always thought" the Government's goal with aviation is to neither "stop people going on holiday (and) stop the economy getting what it needs" nor "business as usual, as if climate change is not a problem".

"I think that is a sensible middle ground of this debate," he said. "And to make that a reality, we have a system in this country of carbon budgets.

"And so it's really important to say this: Any decisions about airport expansion take place within that framework."

Rachel Reeves is expected to announce her support for the expansion in a major speech on Wednesday, as she attempts to woo private investment to the UK to alleviate its harsh economic situation.

Speaking about the expansion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, she said: "When we say that growth is the number one mission of our government... We mean it.

"That means it trumps other things.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is widely expected to drop his long standing opposition to the expansion and agree with the Chancellor, as No 10 said the two were ‘in lockstep’.

While he hasn’t commented on the current row, Starmer voted against the expansion in 2018, and said “there is no more important challenge than the climate emergency” in 2020.

It seems his position might have shifted since then, and that economic growth does in fact trump other things, including the climate emergency.

The Energy Secretary also faced questions about the independent government advisors on the Climate Change Committee (CCC) calling for no net airport expansion without a proper national plan to curb emissions from the sector and manage passenger capacity.

He said: "I absolutely agree with the CCC", adding that their net zero pathway allows for a 25% increase in aviation passenger numbers by 2050, compared with 2018 levels.

The Government will soon publish the UK's seventh carbon budget, which will include the legal limit on the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions the country can emit from 2038 to 2042 if it is to meet net zero by mid-Century.