Plan B Earth and Others v. UK Prime Minister

The document details the legal challenge by Plan B Earth and others against the UK Government's Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) supporting a third runway at Heathrow Airport. The central dispute was whether the Secretary of State failed to account for the Paris Agreement under the Planning Act 2008 and the SEA Directive. While the Court of Appeal initially found the designation unlawful due to a failure to consider the Paris Agreement as 'Government policy', the UK Supreme Court ultimately reversed this decision. The Supreme Court ruled that the Secretary of State had lawfully exercised discretion and that the Paris Agreement's obligations were sufficiently reflected in the Climate Change Act 2008.

• The Court of Appeal initially ruled that the designation of the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) was unlawful because the Secretary of State failed to take the 2015 Paris Agreement into account, which the court deemed part of 'Government policy' under s 5(8) of the Planning Act 2008.
• The UK Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal's decision, concluding that the Secretary of State did not fail to take the Paris Agreement into account and had lawfully exercised discretion regarding the weight attributed to it.
• The UK Supreme Court determined that the Paris Agreement did not constitute an established 'policy' under s 5(8) of the Planning Act 2008 at the time of the ANPS designation, as the government's approach was still developing and the Climate Change Act 2008 remained the primary established policy.
• The UK Supreme Court found that the Secretary of State did not breach the SEA Directive, as evidence indicated the Paris Agreement was considered during the drafting of the environmental report, and the decision to omit a distinct reference to it was a matter of discretion.

APA

Contributor, C. (2022). Plan B Earth and Others v. UK Prime Minister. ClimaTalk. https://climatalk.org/2022/05/30/plan-b-earth-and-others-v-uk-prime-minister/

Chicago

Contributor, ClimaTalk. Plan B Earth and Others v. UK Prime Minister. ClimaTalk, 2022. https://climatalk.org/2022/05/30/plan-b-earth-and-others-v-uk-prime-minister/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Contributor |first1=ClimaTalk |title=Plan B Earth and Others v. UK Prime Minister |publisher=ClimaTalk |date=30 May 2022 |url=https://climatalk.org/2022/05/30/plan-b-earth-and-others-v-uk-prime-minister/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{contributor2022plan, author = {Contributor, ClimaTalk}, title = {{Plan B Earth and Others v. UK Prime Minister}}, institution = {ClimaTalk}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://climatalk.org/2022/05/30/plan-b-earth-and-others-v-uk-prime-minister/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }