Stopping Heathrow Airport Expansion (For Now): Lessons from a Victory for the Politics of Sufficiency

Abstract

A politics of sufficiency challenges the relentless expansion of production and consumption. It faces daunting obstacles in contemporary societies where macro-economic growth has come to be seen as imperative. However, when defined more narrowly, as a challenge to the growth of particular forms of economic activity, ideas of sufficiency have made some limited inroads. One significant example is the Conservative-led government's cancellation of the planned third runway at Heathrow airport in Britain. This represented a major victory for environmentalists and others who argued that aviation growth conflicted with Britain's carbon-reduction targets. The case sheds light on the conditions in which sufficiency-based policies can prevail today, notably through linkages with core political imperatives faced by states and political actors. In this case, a sufficiency approach became linked to the legitimacy needs of the Conservative Party at a key moment, while campaigners succeeded in casting doubt on claims that Heathrow expansion was economically imperative.