PATRICK Harvie has accused the Scottish Government of “surrendering” a commitment to climate justice over their decision to back the building of a third runway at Heathrow Airport.
In a strongly-worded attack, the Scottish Greens co-convener criticised the SNP for “bailing out” the UK Government after Economy Secretary Keith Brown said the move would bring significant benefits for Scotland.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday, Harvie asked whether Scotland’s commitment to climate justice didn’t “apply to people living under the flight paths at Heathrow”.
He said: “A third runway would cause a quarter of a million extra flights a year, a massive increase to emissions, the single biggest threat to the whole of the UK meeting its climate change targets.
“It would leave thousands of people’s homes too noisy and too polluted to live in, and unknown tens of thousands more left suffering the damaging health effects.
“I can only imagine the outrage, and I would join it, from the Scottish Government and from their colleagues at Westminster if the UK Government was to inflict this kind of damage on so many lives in Glasgow or in
Inverness or in Dundee in exchange for alleged economic self-interest, yet they will now troop through the voting lobbies to bail out a Tory Prime Minister who stood for election saying no ifs, no buts, no third runway.
“What is the point of a principle like climate justice when it is surrendered so easily?”
Harvie described Heathrow’s estimate of 180,000 jobs being created by the plans as “pie in the sky” and “about as believable as the job projection figures for Donald Trump’s golf course”.
Referring to the airport’s presence at the recent SNP conference in Glasgow, he said: “We’re not surely going to fall for this are we? What were the Heathrow bosses putting in the drinks at SNP conference?”
In response, Nicola Sturgeon said the decision was one for UK minsters but her Government had looked at the option that would deliver the greatest benefit to Scotland’s economy and connectivity.
She said: “In reaching our judgment – the work was led by Keith Brown, who is our Economy Secretary – the Scottish Government looked carefully at which option would deliver the greatest benefits to Scotland’s economy and connectivity.
“If we look at connectivity, we see that 40 per cent of long-haul visitors to Scotland connect through Heathrow, compared with just four per cent who come through Gatwick.
“We are working hard with our airports to increase direct flights, but hub connectivity remains important to Scotland.”
Sturgeon continued: “On the economy, there’s the potential for significant construction spend in Scotland and thousands of jobs.
“In the nearer term there is potential for a supply chain hub at Prestwick, which is extremely important in terms of economic impact and jobs, a £10 million route development fund, a reduction starting in January in passenger charges that will make service between Scotland and Heathrow much more viable and a new marketing campaign as well. These are the reasons on which our decision was based.”
The First Minister said Scotland had a “strong record” on meeting climate change targets and had shown “global leadership” by including aviation emissions.
She added: “These will always be difficult decisions to strike, and difficult balances to strike, but meeting our climate change targets while also ensuring we have the infrastructure to enable our economy to grow and support jobs – these are not mutually-exclusive objectives.”
Theresa May has faced anger from within her party after giving the go-ahead for the third runway. The move has brought a renewed threat of legal action by councils in the area, including Windsor and Maidenhead, which includes the Prime Minister’s constituency, and led to the resignation of one of her MPs.
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