Tag Archives: Heathrow
The government's Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has finally been awakened from its slumbers by the school kids strikes, Extinction Rebellion demonstrations over Easter and Greta Thunberg's visit to the UK and meeting with opposition leaders. With the UK slipping behind on its legal obligation to cut emissions by 2032, this is long overdue, but don't expect too much from it. This is the body that gave the government cover for Heathrow expansion and has remained silent on fracking. Its assertion that the UK could and should lead the global fight against climate change by cutting greenhouse gases to nearly zero by 2050 is welcome, but, as one of its principal authors has admitted, there is no way this can be done without government action. How likely is this?
As the Communist University in South London argued in its discussion paper on climate change [1], there is no known technology that can remove carbon economically from the atmosphere once it's there. The only known remedy for global warming is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. This cannot be done under capitalism, however many windmills we construct, however efficiently we burn hydrocarbons, however many solar panels we manufacture. There is simply too much profit to be made from pumping the known reserves of oil and gas, not to mention those waiting to be discovered when the poles melt as a result of the CO2 we have already pumped into the atmosphere. The capital this profit has created has given the extractive industries a death-grip on governments. It lobbies them, it finances their political parties and their leaders and it appears to be working on the assumption that, assisted by robotisation, the global elite can, unlike the rest of us, survive the threat of global extermination. Gated communities on top of mountains?
System Change, Not Climate Change is a slogan we can rally behind. Society can address climate change, but not under capitalism. As a system it has generated huge economic growth over the last two hundred years, but only at a price, and that price is now approaching the destruction of life on our planet. It's not government action such as that called for by the CCC that can save the day, it's changing the system from one whose function is to accumulate capital to one which meets everyone's needs. That means a planned, democratic society managed for the benefit of ordinary working people. It's called socialism.
[1] https://communistuniversity.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/global-warming-a-discussion-paper/
Posted in Global Warming
Tagged Committee on Climate Change, Communist University in South London, CUiSL, Extinction Rebellion, Fracking, Greta Thunberg, Heathrow, System change not climate change
Criminal Irresponsibility
Interviewed on the Today Programme today, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling sought to defend the government's decision to push through parliamentary approval for Heathrow expansion without waiting for the Climate Change Committee to report later this week on the UK's progress on meeting CO2 emission targets. His reasoning was that
By 2050 aircraft would be much more efficient, thus generating much less CO2.
CO2 emissions by aircraft were an international responsibility and don't affect UK targets.
Both arguments demonstrate the government's criminal irresponsibility in this area. Basic physics demonstrates that, after more than one hundred years of development of aviation, the scope for further efficiency savings is vanishingly small. Don't take my word for it – refer to the late Professor David MacKay's book Sustainable Energy – without the hot air which he generously published as a free book which you can download here. The proof you need is in Part 111, section C
The argument that aviation's CO2 emissions are none of the government's business is simply risible.
Global warming and its consequences, including both the need and the potential for social revolution, is the subject of a discussion paper being researched and drafted by the Communist University in South London. Go to https://communistuniversity.wordpress.com/ to follow progress or, even better, to register your willingness to participate.
Tagged Chris Grayling, Climate Change Committee, Communist University in South London, CUiSL, Heathrow, Heathrow expansion, Professor David MacKay, Sustainabe Energy without hot ai
You Cannot Be Serious!
In December 2015 the government signed up to the UN Convention on Climate Change (COP 21), requiring net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 – a cut of 90 percent in the then prevailing level. If there is a new runway at Heathrow, aviation is projected to account for 50% of our carbon emissions by 2050. Does this make sense?
Global climate change is a class issue[i]. A world that ignores COP21 will be very different to the present one. The choices for the working class will not simply be between continued exploitation and social revolution. The risk of total subjugation and extinction could not then be ignored.
Aviation's contribution to CO2 emission is also a class issue. As we pointed out on 29 October 2016, frequent flyers are predominately drawn from the wealthiest 10% of the population. 15% of the British population who fly three or more times a year account for 70% of all flights. More than half the UK population takes no flights at all.
The response of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport to Heathrow expansion which reported today is to call for tougher rules on night flights and a plea to keep costs to flyers down. They are silent on CO2 emission.
Have you noticed how the BBC invariably concludes reports of bad news for the government with an anodyne government rebuttal? Perhaps they will employ this one by a Department for Transport spokeswoman in response to the Select Committee's report:
"Expansion [at Heathrow] will only proceed if it meets strict environmental obligations and offers a world-class package of compensation and mitigations for local communities."
A more appropriate response to the Select Committee would be that of John McEnroe to a poor line decision:
"You cannot be serious".
[i] If you are interested in participating in research by the Communist University in South London into this, go to https://communistuniversity.wordpress.com/
Tagged Aviation and CO2, BBC Bias, Communist University, Communist University in South London, COP21, CUiSL, Heathrow, Heathrow expansion, Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport, Transport Select Committee
The Sleeping Poodle
It is the role of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) to monitor overall progress against carbon budgets and the 2050 target. It is the nation's watchdog to confirm that the UK meets its commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, as set out in the Climate Change Act. 'Watchdog' is, however, a generous metaphor. A sleeping, toothless poodle would be more appropriate. The CCC was sidelined when Howard Davies, the bungling former head of the Financial Services Authority, produced his report recommending Heathrow expansion (see earlier comment). The CCC continued to doze while the government accepted Mr Davies's recommendation, believing itself to be inhibited from examining "specific projects", including even Heathrow expansion. It has, however, finally woken up to the fact that the Heathrow expansion is incompatible with the 2050 target. It has now belatedly called on the government to "publish a strategic policy framework for UK aviation emissions". More of a whimper than a snarl!
The CCC refers to the need for the government to address "strategic options and innovation priorities to pursue deeper cuts in aviation emissions" but they must know that no such options or innovations exist other than restricting demand for flying. As David MacKay demonstrated in Chapter 5 of Sustainable Energy – without the hot air , after 100 years of aviation development, the theoretical efficiency limits for hydro-carbon based aviation are being approached. There are, essentially, no more efficiency savings to be secured. If the CCC doesn't understand this, it's time they stood down.
Capitalists don't, of course, like interfering in any market capable of generating huge profits. They are also not very keen on restricting the "freedom of choice" of the rich and powerful – the people responsible for the great majority of flights. On the whole, they come clean about such motives. They are less transparent when it comes to their willingness to tolerate a large proportion of the world's population being exterminated by global warming so that the super-rich can survive and thrive. When this is appreciated, so is the understanding that halting global warming and replacing capitalism with communism are synonymous.
Tagged Aviation emmissions, CCC, Climate Change Act, Climate Change Committee, CO2, communism, David JC MacKay, David MacKay, Heathrow, Howard Davies
Heathrow – an irrational decision
The UN Convention on Climate Change (COP 21), which the governments of the world, including ours, signed up to in December, requires net zero emissions by the second half of this century for the target ceiling for global warming of 1.5 degrees centigrade to be met. It means that by 2050 the UK government has to cut its carbon emissions by 90 percent.
Project yourself forward to 2050. If the new runway at Heathrow goes ahead, aviation will (on current projections) account for 50% of our carbon emissions by 2050. How will you or your children feel about living in a country where the availability of gas and oil to heat your home is a tenth of the current level, where electricity is available for only a few hours a day unless it is expensively provided by nuclear power plants for which there are no credible plans to store safely the radioactive waste for thousands of years? Will this situation be tolerable when 50% of the available hydrocarbons are being guzzled by an affluent 1% taking multiple leisure flights every year?
Clearly, even disregarding the adverse environmental effects on the inhabitants of West London, the plan to expand Heathrow is irrational. This should leave it vulnerable to judicial review. This route will be explored, and we wish those who pursue it well, but the CP has little confidence in our judges to decide such matters. However unconsciously, they reflect the interests of the class from which they are drawn and whose ideas they have imbibed. As has been demonstrated time and time again, the rights of capital and property always prevail over the rights of workers.
As we commented on 12 December when COP 21 was announced, a low carbon future is both essential and attainable, but whether it can be delivered without dismantling capitalism first is quite another matter
Tagged COP21, Heathrow, judicial review
LOOKING THE OTHER WAY AGAIN
Sir Howard Davies' long-awaited report from the Airports Commission was finally published last week. Predictably, he delivered what Big Business wanted: a recommendation to build a new runway, ideally at Heathrow, and silence on the impact it would have on the UK's commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 2050. Howard Davies is, however, an expert at looking the other way when needed. He was the founding Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, luckily standing down sufficiently prior to the financial crash in 2006-7 to escape the criticism heaped on the head of his hapless successor. No matter – he had delivered for his political masters the 'light touch' self regulatory regime they wanted. How could he be blamed that it was totally unfit for purpose? His subsequent career as Director of the LSE did come unstuck following its acceptance of money from Gaddafi – looking the wrong way again but this time a self-confessed "error of judgment". Just the man then the government needed as Chairman of the Airports Commission!
As Greenpeace commented, the topic of carbon emissions is largely absent from Howard Davies' report. Where it is addressed, it is with calls for marginal improvements such as increasing airport charges for older aircraft and mandating "green slots" under which less polluting aircraft take up the new capacity. No doubt aware of this deficiency, Davies wrote to Lord Deben of the Climate Change Committee when the report was published, pointing to the need for "a more significant package of measures" than appeared in his report. His ideas for these? A huge increase in the carbon price, which would presumably obviate the need for a new runway in the first place, and the pipe dream of bio fuels to replace aviation oil. It cannot be produced without reducing food production and starving the poorITS .
Frequent flyers are predominately drawn from the wealthiest 10% of the population. 15% of the British population who flew three or more times last year accounted for 70% of all flights. More than half the UK population took no flights at all. We don't need a new runway – we need the wealthy to fly less frequently. Building more runways at Heathrow or Gatwick is not the way to go about this.
Tagged Airports Commission, Financial Services Authority, FSA, Gatwick, Global warming, Heathrow, Howard Davies, LSE, third runway