South West's 20 Year Plan Favours Bigger Airports Over Tackling Climate Change
05/09/2006 08:30The Draft South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), which sets out how development will be managed in the South West of England over the next 20 years is ambitious about controlling CO2 emissions and tackling climate change, but admits these ambitions will be “difficult to achieve” in the light of planned airport expansion and other high carbon approaches. Sustainability South West believes the strategy will need to withdraw support for airport expansion in order to help to stabilise emissions and reduce the region’s contribution to climate change.
The South West’s population is set to grow by up to 750,000 people over the next twenty years and this will have major impacts on the region. Everyone who lives, works or visits the region will be affected by this growth and the RSS claims to deal with this in the most ‘sustainable’ way.
Sustainability South West, the region’s independent champion of sustainable development, submitted a formal response to the RSS during the recent consultation period. The response highlights the strengths of the strategy, including its ambition to stabilise and reduce the region’s ’eco-footprint’, adopting a CO2 reduction target and a commitment for large scale developments to be carbon neutral.
However the benefits of these measures will be negated by what Sustainability South West identifies as ‘a high carbon’ approach to transport – and airport expansion in particular – which are likely to increase in the region’s overall CO2 output.
The introduction to the RSS describes climate change as ‘the greatest threat’ and inform
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