14:58 Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)

We should continue to push for further technological improvements and ensure maximum social and economic value for each tonne of CO 2 emitted, but the future growth of the aviation industry presents a major opportunity for the UK economy, and it would be unwise to start playing productive sectors of the economy off against each other as we seek solutions to climate change. In a highly competitive global market, adverse regulations that limit a particular sector’s ability to grow domestically are more likely to increase the possibility of a competitor based elsewhere in the world gaining commercial advantage, than effectively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I encourage the Government to work through bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation to promote solid and economically sound solutions.

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15:41 Maria Eagle (Labour)

On carbon emissions, I hope the Minister agrees that we will simply not achieve the goal set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 to reduce emissions by at least 80% by 2050, compared with 1990 levels, unless aviation does more. That is why we believe that future aviation growth must go hand in hand with a greater cut in aviation emissions than we agreed when we were in government.

The Government have failed even to re-affirm their commitment to the existing emissions target for aviation that we set in government. I hope that the Minister will take the opportunity to do that today and that she will support our call for the Energy and Climate Change Committee to set out what it would mean for aviation to go further and ask it to update accordingly the carbon budgets that have been set.

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15:51 The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers)

I am sorry, but I really do not have the time. We accept that the international nature of aviation, as has been said, means solutions are often best delivered at a multilateral level. That is why we are working with the International Civil Aviation Organisation towards agreement on emissions and on noise issues. That is why we have worked very hard on the inclusion of aviation in the emissions trading scheme. We will publish our draft strategy in spring next year for public consultation, with a final strategy due in 2013. We want to see Britain, and British companies, spearheading the global debate on greener air travel and shaping a low-emission aviation sector of the future. We need to work with the industry to find new ways of decarbonising air travel, boosting investment in low-carbon technologies and fuels, and enabling the aviation sector to generate the headroom it needs to grow in a sustainable and successful way. Our world-beating aerospace sector will play a vital role in that. The challenge creates great opportunities for that world-beating sector.

We want to open a new chapter on the aviation debate. We are interested in working on a cross-party basis, as has been discussed today. Our goal is to move away from the polarised opinions that have dominated the discussion in the past. We want to develop a broader consensus for the change we need to deliver a flourishing air transport sector that can support economic growth, while addressing its local environmental impacts and playing its full part in combating climate change.

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