High Court rules UK climate plan ‘unlawful’ – again

ENVIRONMENTAL groups have won their case against the UK government for a second time over its climate action plan, which the High Court has ruled “unlawful”.

Friends of the Earth, Client Earth, and the Good Law Project argued that The Carbon Budget Delivery Plan provided too little detail on the government’s assessment of the risk of policies not being delivered.

The Carbon Budget Delivery Plan was published in March 2023 after the previous version, the Net Zero Strategy, was also ruled unlawful for similar issues in risk assessment.

Lack of information to make a decision

Mr Justice Sheldon upheld four of the five grounds for legal challenge, namely that the secretary of state at the time, Grant Shapps, failed to consider material on delivery risk before signing off on major climate policies.

The judge ruled that the secretary of state did not comply with his duty under the Climate Change Act (CCA) 2008 to prepare policies that would allow relevant carbon budgets to be achieved.

The carbon budgets were devised under the CCA to set successive five-year goals, from 2008, for the UK to reduce its emissions.

Carbon budget nine (CB9) covers years 2048-52, where the government expects the UK to have reached its goal of emissions being at least 100% lower than the baseline in 1990 for CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Government focused on strengths

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “The UK can be hugely proud of its record on climate change.”

They added: “The claims in this case were largely about process and the judgment contains no criticism of the detailed plans we have in place. We do not believe a court case about process represents the best way of driving progress towards our shared goal of reaching net zero.”

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) found that the UK’s above target performance for CB3, which covered 2018–22, was mostly thanks to EU regulation and COVID.

In February, the independent body warned that the UK is “already substantially off track for 2030” and also criticised the current climate plan for not doing enough to reach the 2030 goal of reducing emissions by 68% compared to 1990 levels.

Lord Deben, chair of the CCC, said: “Government has been too slow to embrace cleaner, cheaper alternatives and too keen to support new production of coal, oil, and gas.”

Last week the government awarded 31 licences to firms to explore for oil and gas in the North Sea, citing energy and economic security for its decision.

The High Court has ordered Claire Coutinho, secretary of state for energy security and net zero, to redraft the climate action plan within the next 12 months.

Friends of the Earth said in a statement: “Our victory in court hopefully means that the government will now do its job properly and come up with a new credible plan that prioritises fair solutions and means we can meet our climate targets.”