Climate groups take government to court over “dangerous” aviation strategy

Climate charity Possible and Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) have each filed a legal challenge against the government’s aviation emissions strategy. Lawyers at Leigh Day have filed for a judicial review of the “Jet Zero” strategy, which the Department for Transport released in July, on behalf of each of the groups.

When the strategy was published, a wide range of climate groups and experts criticised it as utterly inadequate to hold the industry to account on reducing emissions in line with the UK’s legally binding climate commitments. Possible’s co-director, Leo Murray, said it relied too heavily on “pie in the sky technologies”.

The grounds on which the challenge has been made are as follows:

  • The strategy breaches the Climate Change Act as the Secretary of State failed to ensure that the strategy would enable the UK’s carbon budgets to be met and, as a result, its policies risk failing to deliver net zero.

  • The Secretary of State failed to give lawful reasons for departing from advice given by the Climate Change Committee that, given uncertainty around technological solutions to aviation emissions, a demand management policy framework is also needed.

  • The Secretary of State failed to consult, in a lawful manner, on the strategy because it was decided beforehand that demand management measures - moves to cut flight numbers - were not going to be included in the strategy.

  • There was also a failure to take account of the need to reduce emissions other than CO2 that are produced by flights, which, altogether, cause roughly twice the amount of heating.

GALBA’s legal case is also bringing additional grounds which relate to how the strategy will feed into the local planning process for regional airports such as Leeds Bradford. This is because the government’s strategy fails to ensure that total aviation impacts on the climate are considered as part of the planning proposals for regional airport expansion. GALBA is currently crowdfunding to raise £60,000 to fund their legal battle.

The Climate Change Committee, in their most recent 2022 progress report to Parliament, stated that the government needs to “implement a policy to manage aviation demand as soon as possible.” This is to ensure there are adequate mechanisms in place “in the likely event” that low emission technologies do not become commercially available in time to sufficiently reduce emissions from flights.

Possible is calling for the introduction of a progressive tax on frequent flying to fairly reduce demand for flights, rather than taking the dangerous gamble that  the industry can cut emissions while allowing continual growth in passenger numbers. The frequent flyer levy, a policy which is both popular and fair, would manage demand by placing a progressively higher tax on the small group of people who fly frequently, with just 15% of people taking 70% of all UK flights. It is considered the most equitable and easily implementable method of reducing aviation demand.

Alethea Warrington, campaigns manager at climate charity Possible, said:

“Aviation is highly polluting and very difficult to decarbonise, making it really dangerous that the government is encouraging huge growth in flights. The climate crisis is here now, and the UK is already experiencing record-breaking heatwaves which melted runways this summer. The government refuses to listen to their own advisors on climate, who have repeatedly warned that we need to limit flights. We can’t allow the Department for Transport to crash our climate so that airports and airlines can keep cashing in as our world burns. So we’ll see the government in court to tell them exactly that.” 

Nick Hodgkinson, a GALBA member from Leeds, said:

“The government claims that “Jet Zero” is how the aviation industry will reach net zero emissions by 2050. But that’s a fantasy. In reality Jet Zero does the opposite - it gives the green light to large scale expansion of airports and emissions. Our local action is being supported by responsible people across the country and we’re confident that they will help GALBA raise the £60,000 we need. Then we’ll be able to hold the government to account for this ludicrous strategy and make a case for the climate.”

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith, who represents Possible, said: 

“The Committee on Climate Change told the Government that demand for flights would have to be managed so that the Jet Zero Strategy could help meet the carbon budgets and Net Zero. But those kinds of measures were not in the strategy. Possible believes that the Secretary of State failed unlawfully to take the independent expert’s advice into account. By not fully appreciating the risk to delivery that sustainable aviation fuel represents, he has breached his duties under the Climate Change Act 2008.”

Leigh Day solicitor Ricardo Gama, who represents GALBA, said:

“The failure by the government to have any strategy to decarbonise aviation was a gaping omission in the UK’s roadmap to net zero. That gap was supposed to be filled by the Net Zero strategy. The government has suggested in responding to pre-action correspondence that the Jet Zero strategy was never intended to deliver on its obligations under the Climate Change Act, which is a completely unsatisfactory answer both because the strategy clearly was meant to fulfil that purpose and because, if that were true, there would no strategy for achieving net zero in aviation at all. Our clients are therefore determined to proceed with their claim for judicial review.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

For media enquiries and further information please contact press@wearepossible.org or 07806431577.

  • Alethea Warrington, campaigns manager at climate charity Possible, and spokespeople from GALBA are available for comment. Please email press@wearepossible.org for more information.

  • Nick Hodgkinson, GALBA activist, has Motor Neurone Disease which causes various physical impairments, including speech. He can speak in person, on the phone or via Zoom/Teams but needs to pre-arrange a date and time by email: GalbaUK@protonmail.com

  • Possible is a UK-based charity that brings people together to take positive, practical action on climate change. Combining individual and local actions with larger systemic change, we connect people with each other, and communities with ways to address the climate crisis. wearepossible.org.

  • GALBA is a group of concerned citizens from across West Yorkshire who successfully campaigned against a planning application by Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) to expand by three million passengers a year. The group submitted detailed responses to both “Jet Zero” consultations and recognises “Jet Zero” as a threat to their aim of preventing any expansion of LBA. More information about GALBA is available on their website: www.galba.uk 

  • GALBA is currently crowdfunding to raise £60,000 to aid them in this legal battle.

Alex Killeen