Environmental Audit Committee call for evidence: airport expansion and climate and nature targets

This Response from the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment was submitted on 2 May 2025 .

This evidence has been developed by:

• Dr Andrea Fantuzzi, Advanced Research Fellow in the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London
• Dr Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, Lecturer (Imperial College Research Fellow) at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London
• Professor Marta Blangiardo, School of Public Health, Imperial College London
• Professor Anna Hansell BA Hons (Cantab), MB BChir, MRCP, MPH, PhD, FFPH, Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, Director of the Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability at the University of Leicester, and Director, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Chemical Threats and Hazards

The submission has been compiled by:

• Cait Hewitt, Policy and Engagement Officer, Grantham institute – Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London

Key messages:

• The noise impacts of airport expansion should be treated as a public health hazard and given greater weight in assessments of the effects of airport expansion. The noise provisions in the 2018 ANPS should be updated in light of the increased evidence of health impacts that is now available.
• There are meanwhile fundamental challenges associated with the scale-up of so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuels, which ministers have described as a key measure for cutting the emissions associated with airport expansion. Aviation emissions will be difficult to reconcile with net zero targets even without expansion, with any increase in airport capacity making that challenge harder, if not impossible.