The planned third runway at Heathrow is fast becoming the litmus test for climate policy in UK politics. PM David Cameron (2010-2016) opposed it, before he supported it, ditto his successor Theresa May and now that Boris ‘I’ll lie down in front of the bulldozers’ Johnson looks likely to be our next PM, word is that his opposition to expansion is wobbling. All this in the week where the UK set a ‘net zero carbon by 2050 target’.

It’s not just in London, or amongst the Conservative Party either. Here in the North East, new Labour North of Tyne Metro Mayor Jamie Driscoll has floated the idea of extending Newcastle Airport’s runways, just weeks after declaring a ‘climate emergency’.

These moments test the difference between commitment and lip service. If you call something an ’emergency’, then you bloody better act like it is or you’ll lose people fast.