The Stop Bristol Airport Expansion campaign has welcomed a new call for decisions on major airport extensions to be put on hold until there has been an independent review of the Government's 2003 Air Transport White Paper.

The recommendation has been made by the Government's own environmental watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission in a study entitled Contested Evidence: The case for an independent review of aviation policy.

This puts the Government under increased pressure to review its plans for airport expansion around the country.

The Sustainable Development Commission study concluded: "The context itself has changed markedly since the 2003 Air Transport White Paper was produced.

"Climate change science has advanced significantly, and the Stern Review has framed the debate on the economic case for early action.

"The Climate Change Act will set carbon budgets. If the 2050 target is increased to a reduction of 80 per cent compared to 1990 levels then, on the basis of those projections, aviation would account for over 70 per cent of UK emissions.

"The economic downturn and soaring fuel prices have hit the number of business and leisure flights, and public attitudes to flying are more ambivalent."

The report's authors believe that the risks of decisions in favour of expansion outweigh the possible benefits as long as the outcomes of political decisions on climate change remain uncertain and while there is controversy between different stakeholder groups.

SBAE spokeswoman Hilary Burn said: "The Government is becoming ever more isolated in clinging to the airport expansion plans set down in the 2003 Air Transport White Paper, yet the world has changed dramatically since then.

"Locally, Bristol airport has failed to recognise the new realities required to move to a low carbon economy and is pushing ahead with ever more ambitious expansion plans.

"Climate change is a global issue that urgently requires local, regional and national as well as global solutions."

The airport's director of environment and planning, Alan Davies, said previously that manufacturers and airlines are working to improve the environmental performance of aircraft and that Bristol International Airport was working on projects to help cut its carbon footprint.

In November it will submit a detailed planning application to North Somerset Council in a bid to increase passenger numbers from six million a year at present to nine million a year by 2015.