On Wednesday this week (6 May 2020), the Court of Judgement granted Heathrow Airport permission to Appeal against a ruling which sought to halt their expansion plans.
On February 27th, environmental campaigners won a major victory in the fight against Heathrow expansion as the Court of Judgement ruled that the government did not take into account the Paris climate change agreement, or the impact aviation has on the climate, when it drew up its plans for Heathrow expansion. This ruling meant the government would have to either cancel Heathrow’s Third Runway plans or bring forward new expansion proposals which took climate change seriously into account.
Naturally, this outcome was not welcomed by Heathrow Airport Ltd as it all but prevented expansion: as noted by Friends of the Earth, a third runway would make the ‘government’s own targets of reducing carbon emissions and achieving net zero all but impossible to meet’.
Hence, in an attempt to overturn the ruling, Heathrow Airport Ltd applied to the Supreme Court for the right to appeal the decision which, on Wednesday this week, was granted.
Reacting to this news, Geraldine Nicholson, from local campaign group Stop Heathrow Expansion (SHE) said:
“We always expected this case to reach the highest court in the land. Now it is for the Supreme Court judges to make a decision over our future. We will be following the proceedings very closely and expect the Supreme Court to uphold the Court of Appeal ruling.”
As of yet, no date has been set for the appeal.
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