LBA must cut its greenhouse gases

On Friday 13 December, the YEP published an article about Katie White, MP for the Leeds North West constituency which includes LBA, talking to the airport's boss about trialing 'sustainable' aviation fuel at LBA. GALBA has sent the letter below to the YEP in response.

LBA must cut its greenhouse gases

I was pleased to read that Katie White MP has spoken to LBA’s boss about cutting the airport’s greenhouse gas emissions. This needs to happen urgently and on a large scale. As Katie rightly points out, the recent storms and flooding will only get worse if we keep on damaging the climate by burning fossil fuels, like jet fuel.

She is also right that there is “no quick fix” to decarbonising aviation. It will take a long time to develop clean, sustainably sourced fuels for flying and then make sure they are used on a large scale. That’s a key reason why GALBA opposes any expansion of flights at LBA. We are in a climate hole so the first thing we should do is stop digging!

The repeated recommendation of the Climate Change Committee, chaired by Leeds’ very own Professor Piers Forster, is to stop all airport expansion plans at this time. Until we have tried and tested, large scale solutions to aviation’s climate problem, we must not make it worse by flying more planes and releasing more greenhouse gases. This is especially true of planes that are actually not allowed to fly at night, according to the rules agreed between LBA and the Council.

Finally, I need to correct one point in the article. It says that sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) “emits on average 70 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared with its alternative.” In reality, when you burn SAF in a jet engine, it immediately releases the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as burning jet fuel. It’s only when re-growing the plants used to make SAF that any emissions reduction may occur. That can take years but we don’t have years to wait.

We need to cut greenhouse gases now. We certainly must not increase them by allowing LBA to increase its number of flights.

Nick Hodgkinson

Chair of GALBA