The $18-billion project to expand London’s Heathrow Airport with a third runway was grounded by a senior court on Feb. 28 for not complying with the U.K.’s international climate change commitments. Heathrow Airport Ltd., the owner, says it will file an appeal with the U.K.’s Supreme Court.
The Appeal Court ruled that the government had “absolutely no legal means” to ignore its international climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement, according to Rowan Smith, an environmental law specialist at the law firm Leigh Day. The Dept. for Transport must now amend its Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), which empowered the project in 2018.