The UK High Court ruled on Friday that the government's climate change strategy was inadequate and therefore in breach of the UK Climate Change Act 2008. The ruling comes almost two years after a previous High Court judgment ordered the government to step up its net zero strategy and bring it in line with climate change. Climate change law.
The action was originally brought in 2022 by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and The Good Law Project, which found that government policies are ineffective in achieving significant emissions reductions and are legally prohibited. They argued that it was inconsistent with a binding carbon budget. The High Court has ordered the government to strengthen its net zero strategy. The government has announced a revised net zero strategy titled “Carbon Budget Realization Plan''. However, the plaintiffs filed another claim in the high court, arguing that the revised plan remained insufficient to constitute a reliable strategy as required by law.
They argued that the strategy overlooked the risk that the plan would not achieve the required legally binding emissions reductions. Furthermore, Minister Grant Shapps approved the plans without sufficient information on these issues. This strategy relied heavily on future technology and did not recognize its inherent risks, making the proposal seem uncertain and ambiguous. As a result, serious questions arose about the feasibility of achieving the strategy's objectives.
In his judgment, Judge Sheldon upheld four of the five grounds. He said: “If, as I have found, the Secretary of State took decisions on the assumption that each proposal or policy would be fully realized, then the Secretary of State's decisions were taken on the basis of a mistaken understanding.'' It will happen,” he said. Regarding the true de facto position. He added: “It is not possible to ascertain from the material submitted to the Secretary of State which proposals and policies will not be implemented at all or will not be implemented at all.”
The government must now amend its plans within 12 months to ensure the UK meets its legal commitments to both its carbon budget and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030.
Kyle Lischak, Head of ClientEarth UK, said:
ClientEarth is pleased that by taking action in this case and the 2022 case, we can help ensure that the UK Climate Change Act, one of the world's first long-term domestic climate laws, is enforced by the government. It’s a way to make actually achieving net zero targets a realistic proposition.
