Plans by the petrochemicals company, Ineos, for a 3 billion euro ethane cracker in the Belgian Port of Antwerp are on hold after a court judgement.

The Court of the Council of Permit Disputes ruled against the cracker, known as Project One, which would have been the biggest built in Europe for more than 20 years.

In the ruling issued yesterday (20 July 2023), the court said:

“because the permit has now been annulled, Ineos Olefins Belgium no longer has permission to carry out work on the ethane cracker. The Flemish government now has a period of six months to once again decide on the permit application.”

Translation

The court decided in favour of a case brought by the neighbouring provinces of Zeeland and Nord Brabant.

They argued that the permit for Project One had been issued without an appropriate environmental impact assessment. Their case centred on whether there had been appropriate consideration of the impact of nitrogen emissions from the cracker on a nearby nature reserve protected by the Habitats Directive.

Ineos has 30 days in which to appeal. A company spokesperson told edie.net:

“We are obviously disappointed. We are now, in consultation with our lawyers, carefully studying the decision in order to understand it and to review our options.”

Project One has also been opposed in a long legal battle by the non-profit organisation ClientEarth and 13 partners. They were backed by campaigners across Europe, including anti-fracking groups in the UK.

In November 2020, lawyers for ClientEarth successfully secured an emergency injunction to prevent the clearance of woodland for Project One. They later challenged and successfully blocked Ineos’s first permit application for Project One.

Ineos announced in January 2021 that it had suspended Project One’s propylene dehydrogenation unit, which would turn propane into polymer-grade propylene. But plans continued for the ethane cracker, which makes ethylene, used in plastics, resins and adhesives.

In December 2021, the Flemish authorities approved a new permit for the development. But ClientEarth and its partners argued the permit still failed to reflect the comprehensive environmental impacts. They said the Flemish authorities had failed to fully assess the environmental impacts, in a breach of EU and national laws.

A legal case brought by ClientEarth and its partners will not now be heard. The organisation’s lawyer, Tatiana Luján, said:

“[the] 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.”

Tycho Van Hauwaert, policy officer from the ClientEarth partner, 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.”

Ineos had previously said Project One’s construction and operation would the most environmentally sustainable ethane cracker in Europe and would have the lowest carbon footprint of all European crackers.

The company has faced opposition this week in Scotland at its Grangemouth complex in Falkirk.

On Wednesday (19 July), climate campaigners blocked the entrance and exit to the road tanker terminal.  Seven people were arrested.  

On Saturday (15 July), five people were arrested during a day of resistance. Four people climbed on to the roof of the Ineos gas-fired power station that serves the Grangemouth oil refinery. About 200 people marched to the fence of the power station from a climate camp about a mile away.