GALBA has taken the government to court

Airport campaigners challenged Rachel Reeves' "reckless and irresponsible" aviation plans in High Court

On 1-4 April, the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) were in the High Court in London for their legal challenge against the government’s environmental strategy for flying. GALBA’s case was heard alongside another legal challenge by the climate charity Possible.

The campaigners said the government’s strategy, known as Jet Zero, is reckless and irresponsible, warning it will fail to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution caused by planes. While the government said that Jet Zero aims to reduce pollution, the campaigners say it will actually cause an increase.

GALBA argued in court that the strategy is unlawful and should be rewritten to make it comply with the UK’s legal obligations.

Jet Zero was published by the previous Conservative government as a plan for airlines and airports to cut their greenhouse gas pollution. The current Labour government has chosen to retain the strategy, with its heavy emphasis on alternative fuels and new technologies, claiming it can make flying clean by 2050.

But campaigners and independent experts disagree.

Nick Hodgkinson, Chair of GALBA, said: “This is no April Fool’s joke – it’s deadly serious. Of course, we agree that the government should have a strategy to cut the polluting greenhouse gases caused by flying. But their own expert advisers have described Jet Zero as high risk.”

“That’s because it depends on new fuels and technologies that barely exist at present and are highly unlikely to be available at scale for decades. Rachel Reeves has claimed that alternative fuels are a ‘gamechanger’ but that’s not backed up by the evidence.”

Since Jet Zero was published in 2022, a range of independent expert bodies have criticised measures proposed in the strategy. They warn the strategy will encourage a major rise in greenhouse gases from increased flying and fail to cut the pollution from planes fast enough to meet the UK’s climate goals.

Ian Coatman, Secretary of GALBA, said: “Jet Zero is utterly reckless and irresponsible. The Climate Change Committee, the Royal Society, global consultants Bain & Co and many other independent experts have analysed the measures in the strategy and concluded they are inadequate.”

“It’s simply wrong to pretend you can deal with the deadly threats from extreme weather by crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. The only reliable way to cut the polluting greenhouse gases from flying is to limit flying.”

“Rachel Reeves seems to think it’s OK to pollute our environment with even more flights. She should talk to the people who lost their livelihoods and loved ones in the Los Angeles wildfires, or who were flooded out of their homes in the UK last year, or who are dying of thirst from the lack of rain in Africa. That’s what climate change means in reality.”

Ian added: “It’s our children and grandchildren who will suffer if we don’t stop belching out greenhouse gases. Making the problem worse now, before we know how to solve it, is totally unfair on the next generation.”

Leigh Day solicitor Ricardo Gama, who represents GALBA, said: “Until there is a credible pathway to decarbonising the aviation sector, it is a massive gamble for the government to allow the unchecked growth of the sector without any attempt at managing demand. Our clients are therefore pleased that the important question of whether the government’s approach is lawful will be tested in court.”

Notes

Background: in October 2022, lawyers at Leigh Day filed for a judicial review, on behalf of GALBA, to challenge the Jet Zero Strategy, which the Department for Transport released in July 2022. Despite the change from Conservative to Labour at the last election, Jet Zero remains government policy.

The environmental NGO Possible has also made a judicial review challenge against the Jet Zero Strategy. Their case will be heard alongside GALBA’s in the same court.

The judicial reviews will be heard at the High Court in London from 1 to 4 April. A decision is unlikely to be issued for several weeks.

Independent expert critiques of Jet Zero’s measures: the UK’s Climate Change Committee has stated that the Jet Zero Strategy is “high risk due to its reliance on nascent technology” and that “demand management is the most effective way of reducing aviation CO2 and non-CO2 emissions”.

Similar conclusions have been reached by the Royal Society, aviation industry consultants Bain & Co, low carbon energy experts Element Energy, climate science analysts Carbon Brief and Cerulogy, experts in low carbon and clean fuels policy, amongst others.

Legal grounds: GALBA will argue in court that, when publishing the Jet Zero Strategy in 2022, the Secretary of State for Transport (then Grant Shapps, now Heidi Alexander):

1) Failed to carry out a lawful consultation by failing to consult at a formative stage and failing conscientiously to consider consultee responses

2) Failed to carry out a cost/benefit impact assessment

3)  Failed to take into account relevant planning decisions on airport expansion

4) Breached the Public Sector Equality Duty