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Activist lawyers win ruling over British gov't's failure to tackle air pollution

Xinhua, November 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

A group of environmental lawyers won a case in the High Court Wednesday against the British government over its failure to tackle illegal air pollution across Britain.

ClientEarth described the court ruling as "a damning indictment of ministers' inaction on killer air pollution."

The group called air pollution in Britain a "public health crisis" and said the government had failed to tackle it.

In his judgment announced Wednesday, the judge ruled that a British government air quality plan failed to comply with either a Supreme Court ruling or relevant European Union directives and said the government had erred by fixing compliance dates based on overly optimistic modelling of pollution levels.

ClientEarth CEO James Thornton said: "I am pleased that the judge agrees with us that the government could and should be doing more to deal with air pollution and protecting people's health. That's why we went to court."

"This is an urgent public health crisis over which the Prime Minister must take personal control. I challenge Theresa May to take immediate action now to deal with illegal levels of pollution and prevent tens of thousands of additional early deaths in the UK. The High Court has ruled that more urgent action must be taken," Thornton said.

ClientEarth air quality lawyer Alan Andrews added: "We hope the new government will finally get on with preparing a credible plan to resolve this issue once and for all. We look forward to working with Defra (Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs) ministers on developing a new plan which makes a genuine attempt to achieve legal limits throughout the UK as soon as possible."

Theresa May was quizzed later about the court judgement during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons.

Manchester Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Jeff Smith asked May: "This morning the High Court ruled that the government have comprehensively failed to tackle air pollution properly. Which does the Prime Minister feel is worse: the government losing in the High Court for the second time, or the 40,000 early deaths that result from air pollution every year in the UK?"

May replied that she had always made it clear that the government recognizes there is more to do.

"We have taken action, but there is more to do and we will do it," said May. Endit