Legal action to stop Heathrow Third Runway (Photo: Stay Grounded via Flickr) For Earth Week our climate program is celebrating three recent international wins that show what litigation and the law can do to protect our climate. While we’ve yet to see climate litigation and legal strategies of these types succeed in Canada, we believe that it is only a matter of time before courts and tribunals around the world recognize that climate change is having unacceptable impacts on human and other legal rights – impacts that require a legal response. 1. UK Courts block Heathrow Airport expansion because of climate change London’s Heathrow airport is (usually – when there’s not an epidemic) busy, landing about 1300 airplanes each day , and the UK government has been planning to build a third runway . But that planned expansion will significantly increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a time when UK law requires the country to be reducing its emissions dramatically . Several environmental organizations challenged the planned expansion on multiple grounds , including arguing that the government needed to fully consider its stated commitment to working towards the goals in the Paris climate agreement. In February 2020, the UK […]
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