Supreme Court overturns ruling blocking Heathrow third runway

The Supreme Court has this morning ruled the government acted lawfully when it approved the expansion of Heathrow Airport, nine months after plans for a third runway were ruled illegal by the Court of Appeal due to a failure to adequately consider the UK's climate commitments.

Campaigners immediately vowed to challenge the Supreme Court's decision at the European Court of Human Rights on the basis that former Transport Minister Chris Grayling failed to adequately consider the expansion of the airport against the more ambitious 1.5C warming scenario set out in the Paris Agreement.

The Court of Appeal's February decision sparked headlines around the world for being the first major ruling to block a carbon intensive development based on the Paris Agreement and had been hailed by green groups as a major win for the climate.

But the Supreme Court today accepted arguments from Heathrow's lawyers that Ministers were not obliged to consider the Paris Agreement and its 1.5C temperature goal when granting approval for the third runway.

Tim Crosland, a lawyer from legal charity at Plan B which launched the original legal proceedings against the airport, said the decision to overturn the previous verdict seriously undermined the UK's claims to be a global climate leader.

"The pandemic has reminded us of our subjection to natural laws," he said. "The Paris Temperature limit is all that divides us from a grim future of crisis upon crisis. The Government was right to accept the Court of Appeal's verdict. The Supreme Court's judgment, which has legitimised Mr Grayling's use of the deadly 2C threshold, has betrayed us all."

Crosland yesterday breached the embargo on the court ruling, risking contempt of court proceedings in what he described as an act of civil disobedience. He is now set to try and take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that "Grayling's reliance on the dangerous and discredited 2C temperature limit is inconsistent with the right to life".

In contrast, Heathrow this morning welcomed the decision and is now expected to seek a development consent order for the project.

"This is the right result for the country, which will allow Global Britain to become a reality," a spokesperson said. "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 in every nation and region of our country."

An expanded Heathrow would allow the UK to "compete for trade and win against our rivals in France and Germany" once demand for air travel recovers after the coronavirus crisis has subsided, the spokesperson added. "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," they  said.

However, campaigners stressed that the airport still had a number of significant barriers to overcome before securing a final green light for the project, with the government facing mounting pressure to demonstrate how airport expansion is compatible with its net zero emission target and new goal to slash emissions 68 per cent against 1990 levels by 2030.

While today's ruling means developers can officially bring forward a planning application for the third runway plans, the airport's expansion remains far from certain, with the final decision to approve the project resting with current Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

Green groups today expressed confidence the government would not allow the project to go ahead, arguing the UK's climate goals had been strengthened since MPs backed the project in 2018 and warning the UK's claim to be a climate leader ahead of the vital COP26 climate summit was at stake. They also pointed to uncertainty over whether demand for flights would return to pre-Covid levels, given the widespread embrace of remote working and tele-conferencing technologies.

"Heathrow Ltd have squeaked out a belated legal win, but history has moved on," said Greenpeace executive director John Sauven.  "Now the ball is in the government's court, it's hard to imagine Boris Johnson wanting to resurrect a project that makes no business or environmental sense. With a UK-hosted climate summit just a year away, the government should draw a line under this sorry saga."

Sauven's sentiment was echoed by campaigners at Friends of the Earth, who vowed to continue to challenge the third runway throughout the planning stage. "This judgment is no ‘green light' for expansion," said the charity's head of legal Will Rundle. "It makes clear that full climate considerations remain to be addressed and resolved at the planning stage. Heathrow expansion remains very far from certain and we now look forward to stopping the third runway in the planning arena. With ever-stronger climate policy commitments that Heathrow must meet, it remains unlikely it will ever get planning permission for the third runway."

The Supreme Court confirmed today that Heathrow would need to set out how the controversial project meets the UK's current climate obligations, including the government's legally-binding 2050 net zero target, in its application for a Development Consent Order, a type of planning permission required for nationally significant infrastructure.

Developers estimate that roughly 700 more planes would land every day at the busy London airport once the £14bn project is finished, and campaigners have warned the subsequent hike in carbon emissions would account for a major chunk of the UK's ever-tightening carbon budgets. Heathrow is already one the busiest airports in the world and one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the country.

Richard Fremantle, chair of the Stop Heathrow Expansion campaign, urged the government to kill the "miserable project, once and for all".

"The onus is now on the Government to rule out Heathrow expansion, as continuing to allow it to happen would be committing a massive retrograde step for our environment ahead of the UK hosting the COP26 summit next year," he said. "Even the government's climate advisers say that Heathrow expansion would mean a reduction in capacity elsewhere across the country, at levels that will require closures."

It remains to be seen how the government will respond to the planning application, as it faces competing calls from those MPs keen to advance a multi-billion pound infrastructure project that will create thousands of jobs and those who remain implacably opposed to the project.

In February, the government said that it accepted the Court of Appeal judgment and did not intend to challenge it in court. And in the past, the Prime Minister been a vocal critic of the plans, vowing in 2015 to "lie down in front of those bulldozers and stop the construction".