16:34 Jerome Mayhew (Conservative)

Finally, the Prime Minister has just returned from COP29, where he burnished his international credentials—in his view—by committing to an 81% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2035. Now, that is all very well, but in the sixth carbon budget the Climate Change Committee identified that if we are to reach that target, it can be done only by the restriction of passengers and airport capacity. Will the Minister say whether it is now Government policy to restrict any net increase in airport capacity? If it is, which airport that is currently in operation will be further restricted to allow for the increased capacity anticipated by the expansion of London City airport, which the Government have just allowed?

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16:40 Mike Kane (Labour)

The hon. Member asked about fuel. We do not think there will be significant carbon savings based on this SI, because only a few large operators will take advantage of the new fuel schemes, and only in some limited circumstances. However, I direct the hon. Member to our manifesto commitment on sustainable aviation fuel, for which we have already laid the mandate for 2%, starting on 1 January 2025, which I signed into law just the other week. That will start to grow a sustainable aviation fuel industry in the UK and begin to decarbonise our skies.

On the stacking issue that the hon. Member rightly talked about, our second key manifesto commitment was on airspace modernisation. If only we could get our planes to fly in a straight line and not in circles, we would immediately begin to decarbonise our skies. There is an easyJet plane that flies from Jersey to Luton and probably emits about 35% more carbon than it should because of the route it has to take, because we have an analogue system in a digital age. The Government are hugely committed to our two key manifesto commitments on decarbonising our skies.

The hon. Member mentioned the Climate Change Committee’s recommendation that we should consider a demand-management system; we will formally respond to the CCC on that in the new year. My view is that Mr and Mrs Jones in my constituency should be able to take their annual holiday in Europe because they have worked hard all year.

We have never, on our side of the House, talked about demand management; I wonder whether it is a new policy of His Majesty’s official Opposition— [ Interruption. ] I hear the hon. Member saying from a sedentary position that it is not. It is hugely important that we decarbonise our airports, our maritime sector and our airlines, and we are doing that through our manifesto commitments on the sustainable aviation fuel mandate over the years ahead and on the airspace modernisation projects. Airports themselves are the easier bit to decarbonise, and most of them have a strategy to decarbonise themselves over the next few years. The hard part of the equation will always be the things that take off and land at our airports. There will be no demand management on this side of the aisle.

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