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In an historic win for people, nature and the climate, a Belgian court has ruled that INEOS’s€3 billion plastics project in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, is not legal. The project is now suspended.

The Court of the Council of Permit Disputes ruled that INEOS failed to tell authorities the full extent of the project’s predicted impact on the surrounding environment. According to the court, these crucial omissions mean the Flemish authorities should not have granted the project’s approval – and it now cannot go forward.

The ruling is a culmination of a long legal battle by authorities of Zeeland and Nord Brabant, two neighbouring provinces in the Netherlands. In parallel, ClientEarth and 13 partners had already been conducting asustained legal effort to block the project. The latter culminated in an injunction, and INEOS deciding to come up with a new permit – one that was supposed to reflect the comprehensive environmental impacts of the project, but which the NGOs argued it still failed to do.

ClientEarth lawyer Tatiana Luján said: “Today’s ruling is a watershed moment in the fight against unnecessary plastics. We are at saturation point with plastic pollution – it is now about stopping it at source.

“Plastics is an environmental issue, a people issue and a climate issue. The damage starts from the moment the fossil fuels that make it are extracted, continues through the refining and shipping of those fuels, and then through the tough process that turns them into the building blocks of plastic. Finally, there is the global epidemic of plastic waste and its impact on all of our health.

“Local communities and ecosystems are the ones that bear the brunt of toxic plastic pollution through these processes, and the climate impacts that fossil fuels bring to bear. These are plastics’ hidden harms.”

The new permit application did not satisfy the court. It ruled that the nitrogen pollution created by the plant would breach the EU Habitats Directive.

Today’s ruling in the Dutch authorities’ case renders ClientEarth and its partners’ case concluded, as the permit is now void.

Tycho Van Hauwaert, policy officer on industry from Bond Beter Leefmilieu said: “This ruling brings the nitrogen debate in Flanders to the fore. The nature reserves in the ports of Flanders and the Netherlands are unique ecosystems that deserve protection by a scientifically-based Flemish nitrogen policy framework. To really restore nature, we need to permanently reduce nitrogen emissions from industrial installations.”

Plastics are in the spotlight currently as investors and companies start to scrutinise their risk profile.

Maria Westerbos, founder and director of Plastic Soup Foundation said: "There is now a lot of evidence that plastics and the additives in them are harming our own health and that of the planet. This is shaking up more and more investors, who no longer want to participate in businesses that fuel these issues. A facility such as INEOS’s is therefore out of date."

ClientEarth’s Luján said: “It’s 2023. You cannot use oil and gas to make the components for plastic on an industrial scale and expect to sail through unchallenged.”

INEOS has 30 days from the official notification of the ruling to appeal it.