London Heathrow’s runway plans face further delays

Bloomberg

London Heathrow’s expansion plans face further delays after environmental activists won an appeal over a third runway that Europe’s busiest airport says it needs to boost flights and compete with rival hubs.
Appeal court judges overturned a decision from May in favour of the project, saying the UK government failed to take full account of international agreements on climate change when it backed the proposal.
The ruling casts new doubt on a $20 billion project delayed for decades amid concerns about aircraft noise, increased pollution, the demolition of homes and the impact on crowded roads.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson opposed the runway plan when he was London mayor, and the government said that it won’t appeal the court’s ruling.
It’s also undecided on whether to revisit a strategic plan identified by the court as lacking in proposals for cutting carbon emissions.
“We have always been clear that Heathrow expansion is a private sector project which must meet strict criteria on air quality, noise and climate change,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement. “The court’s judgment is complex and requires careful consideration.”
Heathrow said it will seek to appeal to the Supreme Court and that any issues are “eminently fixable.” Since the original hearing the UK aviation industry has produced detailed plans for reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while the airport itself published proposals this week, a spokesman said.
“The landmark Heathrow judgment is a victory for Londoners,” Sadiq Khan, the city’s current mayor, said. “We face a climate emergency and I’m delighted that the Court of Appeal has recognised that the government cannot ignore its climate change responsibilities.”
Shapps said the government continues to regard airports as national assets and views their expansion as key to boosting global connectivity. He failed to endorse the Heathrow plan, however, saying infrastructure projects must “drive the whole UK economy, level up our regions and unite our country.”
The decision doesn’t rule out an eventual expansion, the judges said, but instead forces the government to review its so-called Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) in light of climate-change legislation.
Britain is a participant in the Paris Agreement, where almost 200 nations agreed to work towards dramatic reductions in fossil fuel pollution by the middle of the century.
“The Paris Agreement ought to have been taken into account by the secretary of state in the preparation of the ANPS and an explanation given as to how it was taken into account, but it was not,” Judge Keith Lindblom said. “That, in our view, is legally fatal to the ANPS in its present form.”
Johnson’s stance is likely to be critical. He recently backed the 100 billion-pound ($129 billion) HS2 high-speed rail project, but has continued to push back against Heathrow’s plans. Asked on February 11 if the runway would go ahead, he said he saw no immediate prospect of it getting built.
The airport operator has spent years trying to win permission for expansion to an annual capacity of 142 million passengers.