SUPREME COURT IGNORES PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT

The Supreme Court has overturned a ruling by the Court of Appeal who stated that the Government (and then Transport Secretary Chris Grayling) were wrong to not take into account the Paris climate change Agreement when presenting its plans to expand Heathrow to Parliament in 2018.

 This fresh ruling means that although Heathrow are entitled to bring forward a planning application for its third runway plans, this Government and current Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will still have to make the final decision on whether or not to allow this project to go ahead, after any planning process – including a full planning inquiry – is complete. That process is not anticipated to take place any time soon. The Government decided not to appeal the earlier Court of Appeal ruling.

Heathrow have so far failed to provide information such as detailed plans showing how they would build a new runway over the M25, basic flight path information, the funding for essential public transport infrastructure, and how local air quality would be brought to within legal limits – on top of which Heathrow have totally failed to address the climate impacts of the additional flights their proposals envisage.

Climate targets and how to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050 will continue to remain a vital part of any proposals put forward by Heathrow – a hurdle they will find they will not be able to overcome later and which the Climate Change Committee, who advise the Government, state would lead to reductions in capacity, at levels that would require closures at other airports around the UK.

Local residents reacted angrily to the news -  Justine Bayley, a resident of Harmondsworth who faces having to leave her home, said that she is disappointed as she hoped sense would prevail and the Court of Appeal’s judgement would be upheld. She said that she is not giving up fighting the plans and continues to believe that sense will prevail, and that Heathrow expansion will never actually happen.

We will provide residents and our supporters with a further update in due course.

Our chair, Richard Fremantle, reacts to today’s Supreme Court verdict.