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Approving expansions already at Stansted, Luton, and Gatwick, the government is focusing on economic growth and job stimulus, but this comes at the risk of carbon budgets, MPs from the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) state.
Luton expects the airport expansion to be able to handle up to 32 million passengers per year by 2043, up from its current limit of 18 million. 2024 saw 16.7 million passengers using the airport. For Gatwick, which currently handles around 280,000 flights a year, the expansion plans will enable that number to rise by around 40,000 initially, increasing to 100,000 by the late 2030s.
The EAC claims that existing and planned government policies are “insufficient” to deliver decarbonisation across the sector in line with national carbon budgets.
While the EAC agrees that expanding airport capacity will deliver some growth to the UK economy, MPs state that the level of growth remains unclear, with the government unable to provide substantial supporting evidence.
“Whilst it may be possible for the government to deliver airport expansion alongside its climate and environment targets, we are concerned that the proposed environmental impact from airport expansion will make such targets significantly more difficult to achieve and at much greater effort and cost,” the Committee said.
“Furthermore, the government has not demonstrated that the economic growth from airport expansion provides enough benefit to outweigh the negative climate and environmental impacts it will lead to.”
The UK Government’s official advisory body, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), had urged ministers to halt all airport expansion projects until a UK-wide passenger capacity management framework is in place to assess the aviation sector’s climate impact. The Government confirmed in January 2025 that it would not accept this recommendation.
The CCC subsequently stated that, if low-carbon aviation technology deployment is slower than expected, more demand management will be necessary in the 2040s, which will be harder to deliver if airports have already expanded.
The EAC, which referenced the CCC advice in its own summary, states that the existing Jet Zero Strategy is too reliant on abatement approaches and technologies, such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), that have not yet been seen on a commercial scale.
The UK’s SAF Mandate entered into force at the start of 2025, requiring that 2% of the UK’s total jet fuel demand be met by SAF in 2025, with the percentage increasing to 10% in 2030 and 22% by 2040.
The UK Government is also facing a deadline to publish a new action plan to reach net-zero. The Government was ordered by the High Court to publish an updated carbon delivery plan that would meet the requirements of the Fourth and Sixth Carbon Budgets, after ruling that a previous plan introduced by the Conservative Government was unlawful.
