Third Runway Project at Heathrow ruled illegal

The construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport has been ruled illegal by the Court of Appeal, who stated that the project would not be in-keeping with the Paris Agreement and would seriously hinder the UK’s target of producing a net-zero carbon emissions output by 2050.

The Third Runway Project would have cost a grand total of £14Bn and would have allowed extra traffic of 700 planes per day at the airport, significantly increasing carbon emissions output once it became operational in 2028. However, it was officially ruled illegal yesterday due to it being in breach of new climate change laws.

Lord Justice Lindblom stated: “The Paris Agreement ought to have been taken into account by the Secretary of State. The National Planning Statement was not produced as the law requires.”

A representative of the legal charity Plan B, Tim Crosland commented: “The court ruling is bad news for all businesses and investors in the carbon economy, who will have to factor in the increasing risks of legal challenges. But really it is good news for everyone, since all of us, including businesses and investors, depend on maintaining the conditions which keep the planet habitable.”

A former Conservative MP and climate adviser to the Theresa May, Lord Randall added: “This is an opportunity for Boris Johnson to put Heathrow expansion to bed and focus on the most important diplomatic event of his premiership, the UN climate summit in Glasgow in November. It is his chance to shine on the world stage.”

An international public law expert at Leiden University, the Netherlands, Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh concluded: “Its implications are global. For the first time, a court has confirmed that the Paris agreement temperature goal has binding effect. This goal was based on overwhelming evidence about the catastrophic risk of exceeding 1.5C of warming. Yet some have argued that the goal is aspirational only, leaving governments free to ignore it in practice.”

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