UK government faces fresh legal action over its climate strategy

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The UK government is facing fresh legal action over its revised climate strategy, just a year after a landmark ruling from the High Court found the previous policy on tackling greenhouse gas emissions was unlawful.

Campaign groups including Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project have filed three separate claims at the High Court in recent weeks over the Sunak government’s so-called Green Day plan.

The revised government plan published in March sets out its strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero to meet its own legally-binding commitments to curb global warming,

In the raft of policies, contained in 40 documents and nearly 3,000 pages published, the government admitted the revised plan would fall short.

Its calculations showed it would only deliver 92 per cent of the emissions reductions needed to meet the UK’s 2030 goal to cut emissions by 68 per cent compared with their levels in 1990.

“The government’s new plan to reduce emissions is not fit for purpose,” said ClientEarth chief executive Laura Clarke.

The latest challenge comes as prime minister Rishi Sunak receives sustained criticism over his handling of climate change. The independent Climate Change Committee said in a report this month the UK had lost its global leadership position, and Zac Goldsmith accused Sunak of being “simply uninterested” in climate change, as he resigned from his role as environment minister last week.

The government would robustly defend the claims, a spokesperson said, adding that the UK was on track for its net zero by 2050 target. “We have met all our carbon budgets to date and are on track to do so in future, creating jobs and investment across the UK while reducing emissions.”

The government was forced to publish the revised net zero strategy after successful legal challenges by the three campaign organisations in July 2022.

In its judgment last year, the High Court said the first strategy for reaching net zero emissions was unlawful because it provided insufficient detail on how the target would be met in line with the country’s Climate Act.

But the trio claim the latest iteration is also unlawful, saying it too breaches the Climate Act. They argue the strategy provides little real information on the government’s assessment of the risk of various policies not being delivered and not meeting legally binding climate targets.

They also raised concerns about the reliance on technology, such as carbon capture and storage, that has not yet been proven at scale anywhere.

The organisations have asked the High Court for a judicial review, a type of legal case that challenges the lawfulness of decisions by the government or a public body.

The High Court can refuse permission to go forward to a full hearing of the claim, but Client Earth’s Clarke said she believed they “have a strong case raising serious deficiencies in the government’s plans”.

Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe said: “The climate crisis is already battering Britain and the world with record heatwaves, droughts and storms, and unless politicians take the action needed to slash emissions these impacts will become more severe and more frequent.

Last month, which was the hottest June on record, the government’s independent climate advisory body also warned it had “markedly less” confidence than last year that the UK’s climate targets from 2030 onwards would be met, blaming weak leadership for the “inertia”.

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