28\/2\/20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court of Appeal ruled that the Government\u2019s policy on a third runway at Heathrow was illegal. It found that the Department for Transport should have taken the climate change implications of the Paris Agreement into account when drawing up the National Policy Statement which outlined its plans for a third runway. The court invited the Government to review the climate section of the National Policy Statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(This is a longer piece than we normally put on our home page but we feel the potential importance of the decision justifies it – if you want to send this story as link, use https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/?p=5971<\/a>) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The National Policy Statement on Airports (NPS), drawn up by the Department for Transport, put forward the case for a third runway at Heathrow.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In June 2018 the House of Commons overwhelmingly voted in favour of the NPS by 415 votes to 119.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That gave Heathrow the green light to draw up detailed plans for the new runway. Those plans would need to be put to be put to a Public Inquiry but the principle of a third runway had been agreed by Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What the Court of Appeal found was that the NPS was unlawful because it had not taken into consideration the Paris Agreement and the commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is the key paragraph of the judgement:<\/strong> The Court has not said there will be no third runway but is inviting the Government to reconsider and amend what the NPS about the third runway in order to take account of the Paris Agreement.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In normal circumstances that it what a Government would do so that the project would be delayed rather than abandoned. But it is widely assumed that the Prime Minister Boris Johnston, a long-standing opponent of Heathrow, will amend the NPS to kill off a third runway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in a statement to Parliament yesterday, said: \u201cThe court\u2019s judgment is complex and requires careful consideration. We will set out our next steps in due course\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The NPS, for example, could be amended to allow expansion at other airports instead of the third runway at Heathrow. That is what Grant Shapps hinted at in his statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe fully recognise the importance of the aviation sector for the whole of the UK economy. The UK\u2019s airports support connections to over 370 overseas destinations in more than 100 countries facilitating trade, investment and tourism. It facilitates \u00a395.2 billion of UK\u2019s non-EU trade exports; contributes at least \u00a314 billion directly to GDP; supports over half a million jobs and underpins the competitiveness and global reach of our national and our regional economies. Under our wider \u201cmaking best use\u201d policy, airports across the UK are already coming forward with ambitious proposals to invest in their infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Government has said that it will not appeal to the Supreme Court to get yesterday\u2019s decision overturned.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Heathrow will appeal to the Supreme Court but might struggle to overturn yesterday\u2019s decision without Government backing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is expected that Heathrow will continue to draw up, and consult on, its detailed plans for a third runway while the appeal is being taken to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Except for the ruling on climate change, the Court found all other aspects of the NPS \u2013 on noise, air pollution etc \u2013 were lawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Appeal Court\u2019s summary of its Judgement:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.judiciary.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Heathrow-summary-of-judgments-26-February-2020-online-version.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Full Judgement:-<\/strong> https:\/\/www.judiciary.uk\/judgments\/r-friends-of-the-earth-v-secretary-of-state-for-transport-and-others\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n What will the Government do if it drops a third runway? <\/strong>It is clear from Shapps statement to Parliament that it will encourage expansion to take place at other airports. I suspect, too, that Heathrow will come back with plans to increase the number of flights using the airport by abandoning\/reducing the half day\u2019s runway alternation enjoyed by communities in West London. There might also be a push from the airlines for more night flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The re-organisation of Heathrow\u2019s flight paths will continue as it has been driven by new technology not by the third runway.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The ruling could have implications for other large projects. The Court has ruled that projects must be assessed to ensure they adhere to the Paris Agreement and ate compatible with achieving a zero-carbon target by 2050. <\/strong>There are being questions raised today over the Government’s \u00a328bn road building programme. And, although the Paris Agreement regulations are carried out on a national basis, other countries will be looking with interest at this judgement. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 28\/2\/20 The Court of Appeal ruled that the Government\u2019s policy on a third runway at Heathrow was illegal. It found that the Department for Transport should have taken the climate change implications of the Paris Agreement into account when drawing up the National Policy Statement which outlined its plans for a third runway. The court … Continue reading “Court rules Government policy on 3rd Runway illegal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6064,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6063\/revisions\/6064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
” Our decision should be properly understood. We have not decided, and could not decide, that there will be no third runway at Heathrow. We have not found that a national policy statement supporting this project is necessarily incompatible with the United Kingdom\u2019s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change under the Paris Agreement, or with any other policy the Government may adopt or international obligation it may undertake. The consequence of our decision is that the Government will now have the opportunity to reconsider the ANPS in accordance with the clear statutory requirements that Parliament has imposed (paragraph 285).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n