Sir Jonathon Porritt, the chief advisor to the government on environmental issues and sustainable development, has criticised Gordon Brown for not understanding climate change.
Sir Jonathon, who is due to retire from his post as advisor today, spoke out in an interview with The Independent. He particularly criticised the Prime Minister for backing controversial proposals for a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport, condeming the decision as “ludicrous”.
He told The Independent that the PM has “some incredibly fixed ideas about some of these things. He genuinely feels that a successful competitive economy of the future has to be growing its aviation business in order to make UK PLC more productive, and so on. And you can put the evidence about minimal economic benefit of a third runway in front of him – it won’t go through the Brown brain”.
Sir Jonathon told the paper that the Prime Minister has started to see the importance of climate change over the past 18 months, but that “environment has never been Gordon Brown’s strong suit”.
Tags: air travel, climate change, Heathrow Airport
