Britain’s Court of Appeal on Thursday ruled in favor of environmental campaigners who oppose the building of a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest.
The court said that the British government — which approved the Heathrow extension in 2018 after years of delays — had failed to take into account commitments to the Paris Agreement on limiting climate change.
In reaction, triumphant campaigners called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson — who in 2015 pledged to lie in front of bulldozers to stop Heathrow’s third runway for both environmental and aesthetic reasons — to finally cancel the project.
The legal action against the approval was brought by various London councils, environmental groups, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
They lost at an original hearing in May.
Presenting a summary of the appeal ruling, Lord Justice Keith Lindblom said that two years ago, the government of then-British prime minister Theresa May had given no explanation of how it took into account the 2015 Paris accord — which seeks to cap global warming to less than 2°C from preindustrial levels — on building the new runway.
“The Paris Agreement ought to have been taken into account ... and an explanation given as to how it was taken into account, but it was not,” Lindblom said.
The British government has decided not to appeal the ruling at the Supreme Court.
However, Johnson, who has appeared ambiguous over his once-staunch opposition to the project, might still have to make an official decision on scrapping it.
Heathrow said that it would appeal the ruling.
“Expanding Heathrow, Britain’s biggest port and only hub, is essential to achieving the prime minister’s vision of Global Britain,” the airport said on Thursday.
Following the ruling, Khan called on the government “to abandon plans” for the runway.
“I’m delighted by the decision handed out by the court of appeal,” he told reporters outside the court. “I’ve always said that we’ve got serious consequences about the government’s plan to have a new runway at Heathrow because of the impact in the climate emergency, on the air quality, on noise pollution [and] on the quality of life of Londoners.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia