Lemmings cleared to build third runway to cliff edge?

The Supreme Court decision to clear the way towards a third runway at Heathrow can’t really be legally wrong. That is rather the point of having a “supreme” court - and what the word “supreme” means in this context (as opposed to any other context).

That does not however, make it right to build a third runway at Heathrow. The environmental damage being done by CO2 emissions, and other externalities, of air travel are well documented - recent research shows that the international regime to control the environmental impact of air travel is inadequate (and that 1% of the world population are responsible for 50% of all emissions from air travel).

Climate change has already passed the point at which it is going to produce life threatening impacts across the globe - and, at a more local level, the resistance to temporary road closures and cycle lanes during the pandemic demonstrate that it will be very difficult to persuade people to inconvenience themselves in the short term to mitigate the harm we are doing to our planet in the slightly longer term.

In 2021 Labour needs to step up, not climb down from, our plans for a Green New Deal - and activists need to be prepared to resist development that threatens damage to our planet (whatever the law says).