UK airports say they can reach net zero and still expand. Is it just pie in the sky?

Passengers prepare to board an easyJet flight at Gatwick airport. The number of adults who say they avoid flying for environmental reasons has fallen. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

So what bit of “no new airport capacity” did airports not understand? The Climate Change Committee (CCC) spelled it out again on Wednesday: flying accounted for 7% of UK carbon emissions last year, the trend is upwards, and more airport capacity is “incompatible” with national net zero targets.

Of course, they’ve said it before: but as the committee noted in its 2023 progress report, airports have since have been racing to expand. This time, hammering it home, the CCC says that no expansion at all should go ahead until the government sorts out a proper way to manage it.