WATCH: Legal response to UK Government’s High Court climate loss

Landmark ruling finds Downing Street’s ‘all on black’ environmental plan is not legal, leaving many asking where from here? 

Delivering a verdict on last Friday 3rd May, the High Court upheld the case brought about by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project, judging that the UK Government breached the Climate Change Act by adopting its own Carbon Budget Delivery Plan. 

Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, is now expected to draw up a revised plan within the next 12 months. This must ensure the UK’s legally-binding carbon budgets, and its pledge to cut more than two-thirds of emissions by 2030. Currently, the Government is on course to miss both. 

‘This is another embarrassing defeat for the government and its reckless and inadequate climate plans. It shows the strength of the Climate Change Act – brought into force after a successful campaign led by Friends of the Earth and the backing of an overwhelming majority of MPs – to hold the government of the day to account for meeting its legal requirements to cut emissions,’ said Friends of the Earth lawyer, Katie de Kauwe.

‘We’ve all been badly let down by a government that’s failed, not once but twice, to deliver a climate plan that ensures both our legally binding national targets and our international commitment to cut emissions by over two thirds by 2030 are met,’ she continued. ‘Cutting emissions isn’t only essential to avert the worst of climate breakdown, it will create long term jobs in green industries of the future, boost energy security, bring down our bills and end our reliance on costly fossil fuels.’

The High Court judgement sided with the claimants that Mrs Coutinho’s department had based its plan on incomplete information relating to the likelihood of that proposed policies would prove effective on delivering the required emissions, in violation of section 13 of the Climate Change Act. This specifies the Secretary of State must adopt plans and proposals that she considers will enable upcoming carbon budgets to be delivered. 

The judge also decided that the plan’s assumption that 100% of policies would work, and achieve 100% of required emissions cuts, was wrong. It also found the Secretary of State had acted irrationally in approving the plan. Any new plan should now represent what officially realistically expect, rather than aspirational targets. Sustainable development was also a cause for concern, with adopted policies only ‘likely’ to contribute to this, which is less certainty than required under the Climate Change Act. 

‘This is yet another climate failure from this government – it’s the second time in two years that its flagship net zero strategy has been found to be unlawful by the court because of our joint legal action,’ said Emma Dearnaley, Legal Director of the Good Law Project.

‘This builds upon our earlier success in the legal challenge, where we released key information that Ministers tried to keep under lock and key, revealing significant risks of their climate policies not meeting vital targets,’ she continued. ‘This welcome ruling shows that the law is our best – and often last – line of defence against a government that is failing to act as it must to address the climate emergency. And we will continue to use it to push for accountability and greater ambition.’

As a result of the verdict, key information has now been made available to the public which the Government had previously refused to publish, many of which make it clear how reckless the plan is. These include so-called risk tables, which have subsequently been unveiled by Good Law Project and Friends of the Earth after they were mentioned in court. 

This is the second time the UK Government’s climate plan has been found to breach the Climate Change Act. Its previous plan, the Net Zero Strategy, was also found to be unlawful following legal challenges by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth, and Good Law Project. Meanwhile, the Climate Change Committee’s own assessment of current proposals found credible policies were in place for just 20% of required emissions reductions. 

Watch the legal response to the verdict below: 

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