The UK’s top court has overturned a decision that plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport were illegal.
It means the controversial project can now seek planning permission although the completion of the runway remains uncertain because of government environmental targets.
Boris Johnson famously promised his nearby constituency that he would “lie down in front of these bulldozers” to prevent the runway going ahead and flew to Kabul in Afghanistan when a Commons vote was staged on the issue.
The Supreme Court ruling marks the latest twist in years of legal and political wrangling over the climate impact and economic benefits of expanding the airport.
The court of appeal found the government’s approval of the runway was illegal because ministers had failed to take into account the UK’s commitments under the 2015 Paris climate accord, requiring it to keep global temperature rise as close to 1.5C as possible.
The decision in February was seen as historic by environmental campaigners, as it was the first significant ruling in the world to be based on the Paris climate agreement.
But in the Supreme Court Heathrow Airport Ltd successfully overturned an earlier ruling that the Government had failed to take account of its own climate commitments when it approved the scheme.
The west London airport said the latest decision will “allow global Britain to become a reality”.
Environmental groups and other opponents of the expansion project described the outcome as “incredibly disappointing” but insisted there “remains real doubt” about whether the third runway will ever happen.
The climate crisis and the rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere will be the focus of the COP26 UN climate summit in November in Glasgow.
John McDonnell MP, the former Labour shadow chancellor who represents a constituency next to the airport, said the decision could be rendered irrelevant by new environmental targets.
He said: “Every decision in government has to take sustainability to heart. The government has much tighter targets now and the
third runway is looking like a white elephant and this decision could be irrelevant.”
