Richard's blog

Oh to have been in Parliament on Monday - although I'm not sure I'm allowed in anymore, given what happened last time...

The Government's Planning Bill - basically an attempt to prevent another Terminal 5 inquiry (the longest in British legal history) - was up for discussion, and MPs from all sides of the House chimed in to criticise Hazel Blears and her madcapped schemes to steamroller through public opinion.

In an earlier article, I talked about 'predict and provide', a pro-growth transport policy model which has lead to self-fulfilling and exponential growth in surface transport. In this article I'll be looking at the Government's argument that Heathrow must be expanded to meet the growing demand for air travel, and consider if this is a predict and provide approach.

Let's quickly recap on predict and provide. Officials make a prediction based on current growth rates, and extrapolate future data. It is presumed that this demand cannot be checked (because demand is caused by forces over which the Government has no control) and therefore the space for the demand to grow into is provided.

Just what they didn't want you to notice: a new report, out this week to co-incide with the Bali party, points out that contrary to Government figures, UK emissions have risen by up to 19%.

The report, by a team of economists led by Dieter Helm at Oxford University, examined the UK's emissions by consumption, not production, and also included emissions from international aviation and shipping. Their findings make a mockery of the Government's efforts to spin our CO2 impact; our official report to the UN, which ignored these sectors, reports a 15% decrease in emissions.

Poor Brian Wilson, former Labour energy minister and chair of Flying Matters. In what should have been a classic opportunity to get their feet further in Brown's door, the comedy lobby group funded a meeting at the Labour conference by Brownite think tank the Smith Institute.

That's where it all started to go wrong. According to Private Eye, Wilson launched into a tyrade in favour off airport expansion - particularly Heathrow - and denounced opponents of unrestrained growth as "imposibilist". Sadly for Mr. Wilson, the topic of the debate was "'Going Green', and everyone - including his co-speakers, inclluding Lord Whitty and Babara Young of the Environment Agency - turned on him.

The chairman of the meeting tried to bail him out, crying "This is rapidly turning into a bashing Brian exercise, which is very entertaining, but we need other questions", but by then it was all too late. Brian just had to sit back and smile his way through the rest of the talk.

We came, we marched, we got a bit wet and we ended up in the pub.

The weather was against us, but still a few thousand people turned out, calling for radical cuts in CO2, and action, not words, from Government. Marches took place in 50 cities around the world, including one in Bali itself.

The Bali talks aren't going to see any binding targets or international agreements - that will come later - but we can't afford to make the mistake of relying on Government to act. Time is running out, and we must make it clear that if the Government won't make the changes we need, we'll keep taking action until they do.

It's not just the UK that's suffering from unrestrained aviation growth: local residents in Bangkok are up in arms over growing aircraft noise.

In response to complaints from residents, representatives of the Transport Ministry, Airports of Thailand (AoT), the Lawyers Council of Thailand and local homeowners have formed a committee to discuss ways to tackle the growing problems with the airport. Despite warm words, residents have complained that the AoT, who own Bangkok airport, have been desperately trying to evade responsibility.

A group of female climate activists have blockaded the Department for Transport in protest at the Government's transport policies, which are catapulting us towards climate change.

The action came in response to the Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly confirming the government's intentions to build a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow and coincided with the opening of their first 'consultation' exhibition.

Everyone's favourite pro-aviation group, Flying Matters, has been hard at work. They'd like international aviation left out of the Climate Change Bill, and have written to lots of MPs asking them not to listen to the science.

Luckily one of them sent us a copy, which we have kindly transcribed for you. For your viewing pleasure we present: why aviation should get special treatment. Please take one pinch of salt and retire to enjoy: