co2 emissions

A replacement to the Kyoto treaty will be thrashed out in Bali next week.

Today the government begins its long-awaited consultation process into the need for a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport. Strangely enough, given Gordon Brown's recent public declarations that tackling climate change is right at the top of his agenda, it's already looking as though Heathrow expansion will be given the go-ahead. But then documents we've been given by Justine Greening MP show just how closely the government has been working with BAA on preparing the consultation.

This move towards a third runway is despite the fact that it will mean a 70 per cent increase in flight numbers and the resulting rise in climate change pollution will be equivalent to the entire annual emissions of Kenya. Worse still, the bulk of the additional 500 flights a day from Europe's busiest airport will be short-haul hops to cities like Paris, Brussels, Edinburgh and Newcastle - all easily reached by rail.

Campaign news updates:

Airfixed! Why the government's consultation on Heathrow is a sham

London mayoral candidates unite against Heathrow expansion

Want to make a noise about Heathrow expansion? Follow our advice on how to make a submission to the consultation process

1. Heathrow is already Europe's largest airport [i]: adding a third runway will mean a 70 per cent[ii] increase in flight numbers and resulting rises in climate change pollution. It's crazy to be paving the way for such big increases in greenhouse gases when we should be doing all we can to reduce emissions.

I was chatting to the guys from the Centre for Alternative Technology earlier today (they're running the Bluetooth Takeaway in our field at Glastonbury) about some videos we might film about what they're up to at the festival. It seems, however, that they're already video stars in their own right, having filmed and starred in their own production, Cheat Neutral.