The UK Government has come under fire for failing to endorse the previous administration's pledge to curb the future rise in emissions from flying.
In its response today to the Committee on Climate Change's 2009 report on options for reducing UK emissions from aviation to 2050, the Department for Transport said it hadn't yet decided whether it would adopt the Labour Government's target to cut carbon UK emissions from aviation down to or below 2005 levels by 2050.
In today's report, Transport Minister Philip Hammond said more time was needed to re-examine the pledge to reduce CO2 emissions from UK aviation to below 2005 levels (37.5 MtCO2) by 2050.
In his statement, the cabinet minister, said the Government needed “to consider a range of approaches to carbon reduction including deciding whether or not to adopt a unilateral UK target specifically for aviation CO2 emissions, in the widest context, taking account of the latest evidence.”
He added: “Before taking a final decision on this issue, we want to expose this additional work to wider scrutiny.”
But Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins responded angrily to the news, saying Ministers must stop “dithering”.
He added: "The Coalition's failure to endorse the previous government's pledge to curb future emissions from flying is astonishing - hardly the actions of the greenest government ever.
"Allowing aviation emissions to soar will make it much harder for the UK to play its part in tackling climate change, and could mean we'll need to make even bigger energy savings in our homes and businesses.
"Ministers must stop dithering, endorse the 2050 target and publish a new aviation policy which rules out all further airport expansion.
"Relying on biofuels is not the answer - producing them on the scale required would have a devastating impact on the planet."
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