However, ministers said in February that they accepted the court of appeal judgment that it was illegal. The government approved the third runway in 2018, winning a large parliamentary majority. Heathrow has already committed to net zero and this ruling recognises the robust planning process that will require us to prove expansion is compliant with the UK’s climate change obligations, including the Paris Climate Agreement, before construction can begin.” Only by expanding the UK’s hub airport can we connect all of Britain to all of the growing markets of the world, helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Critics also say the economic benefits are illusory given, for example, the estimated £10bn of taxpayers’ money needed to alter road and rail links to the airport, and that it would draw investment towards the south-east.Ī Heathrow spokesman said: “This is the right result for the country. Most flights from the UK are taken for pleasure and just 20% of the UK population take more than two-thirds of international flights. Alongside our supporters in the CBI, the TUC, it is an opportunity to progress, while also meeting the country’s carbon-reduction targets by 2050.” It is also a huge moment for the UK as it moves towards an uncertain Brexit, but now with the confidence that international trade could be boosted by additional capacity at the country’s only hub airport. Parmjit Dhanda, at the campaign group Back Heathrow, said: “This is an important moment for local communities, desperate for jobs and apprenticeships at a very hard time for our economy. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Protesters unfurl a banner outside the supreme court in London in support of Heathrow expansion. “We condemn the reckless and irresponsible verdict. “Approving Heathrow’s third runway is a betrayal of our children’s future and incompatible with the UK’s climate commitments,” said Magdalena Heuwieser from the Stay Grounded campaign. “We are in this for people everywhere facing climate breakdown right now, and for the next generation who are being left to inherit a world changed for the worse,” Rundle said. Heathrow airport expansion remains in doubt and harder than ever, given the increasingly stringent climate policy.” Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth, said: “We are disappointed, but pleased that confirms our view that climate impacts will still need to be fully determined at planning. The supreme court also overturned a parallel Friends of the Earth case. On Wednesday the supreme court said it would refer Crosland to the attorney general and the Bar Standards Board for investigation. “I had no choice but to protest the deep immorality of the court’s ruling,” he said. The verdict was under court embargo until Wednesday morning, but Crosland tweeted it on Tuesday as “an act of civil disobedience”, risking contempt of court. “The really damaging thing is the precedent for the other cases.” He said the court of appeal ruling that the UK’s Paris agreement commitments must be considered had been a “really strong lever” in legal arguments against high-carbon infrastructure.Ĭrosland said he was considering an appeal to the European court of human Rights, an option not affected by Brexit. “I still don’t think the third runway is going to happen,” said Tim Crosland, a lawyer at Plan B, which brought the legal case against Heathrow. Other observers said the third runway may now never be needed. However, Covid-19 travel restrictions have devastated aviation and Heathrow has said the runway could be delayed by five years, having previously set 2028 as a completion date. The £14bn third runway would bring 700 more planes a day and a big rise in carbon emissions. The climate crisis is worsening as CO2 levels continue to rise in the atmosphere and international attention is focused on the UK’s actions because it will host a critical UN climate summit in November next year in Glasgow.īefore the coronavirus pandemic, Heathrow was one of the world’s busiest airports, with 80 million passengers a year. Since the runway was approved in 2018, the UK has committed to net zero emissions by 2050 and on 4 December it pledged to cut carbon emissions by 68% by 2030. Photograph: Heathrow airport/AFP/Getty Images Computer-generated image released by Heathrow shows what the airport would look like in 2050 with a third runway.
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