Prepare for take off: Heathrow airport expansion cleared by High Court
The government today won a legal battle that had sought to stop its proposed £14bn expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Read more: Revenue dips at Heathrow despite record passenger numbers
Campaigners trying to block a third runway at the UK's biggest airport lost the High Court challenge after the court found that transport secretary Chris Grayling's airport national policy statement (ANPS), outlining its expansion plans, was lawful.
MPs backed the scheme last summer by a majority of 296 votes.
Five councils, London mayor Sadiq Khan, environmental campaigners and residents challenged the policy statement on the grounds that it did not adequately address concerns such as climate change, air quality and noise for nearby residents.
The claimants argued that Grayling acted unlawfully by not taking into account the Paris Agreement, which seeks to hold the increase in the global average temperature to "well below" two degrees celsius before the end of the century.
However, the court found that the agreement, reached between 200 nations in 2015, does not form part of UK law and so Grayling did not err in failing to take it into account.
"It is well-established that English law is a dualist legal system under which international law or an international treaty has legal force at the domestic level only after it has been implemented by a national statute," the judges rules. "Therefore, none of them having been incorporated, any obligation imposed on the UK government by the Paris Agreement has no effect in domestic law."
The decision comes as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urges MPs to declare a national climate emergency at parliamentary debate on climate change following weeks of protests by the Extinction Rebellion which brought central London to a standstill.
A fifth claim launched by rival Heathrow Hub alleged that the transport secretary had wrongly preferred Heathrow’s scheme for "bogus" reasons, which the court rejected.
However, it granted Heathrow Hub permission to appeal on EU competition grounds, and the other claimants were also granted permission to appeal.
Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell told City A.M: “Despite the fact these claims were refused this judgment does give emphasis on the right to appeal.
“The key issue as we debate climate change in the House of Commons today is that one of the reasons the government gets off the hook in this judgement is on the basis that the Paris Agreement is not enshrined in UK law. This is a bizarre message to be sending out.”
McDonnell, who joined the legal challenge with his constituency Hayes and Harlington covering Heathrow airport, said the key issue of the Paris climate agreement would come to the fore when Heathrow submits its planning application for the third runway later in 2022.
“Not having the Paris agreement in UK law gives the government a fig leaf which will be exposed at later stages,” he added.
“There will be more legal actions and community campaigning to prevent the runway from going ahead.”
Heathrow is operating at full capacity, revealing record passenger numbers today of 17.9m for the first three months of the year.
Read more: Heathrow braces itself for third runway legal challenge
“With expansion on the horizon, Heathrow is set to invest nearly £1bn into the airport over the coming year to prepare us for the future growth that expansion will unlock,” the airport said today.