Climate groups launch renewed judicial review of Government net zero strategy

A trio of climate activist groups are bringing their second judicial review challenge against the Government over its net zero policy, almost a year on from Mr Justice Holgate's decision that its net zero strategy was unlawful.

In July last year, Holgate J ruled that the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero had breached sections 13 and 14 of the Climate Change Act 2008 after finding the Secretary of State was given insufficient information by advisers meaning that the Secretary of State failed to take into account relevant considerations which were "obviously material" before adopting its carbon budget for 2033 to 2037.

Under the 2008 Act, the Secretary of State has a duty to ensure the country's net carbon emissions in 2050 are at least 100% lower than emissions in 1990. Since 2008, the Government has set carbon budgets – divided into five-year segments – in order to reach the 2050 goal.

Following last year's High Court ruling, the UK Government published the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (CBDP) in March 2023, providing greater detail on its net zero plans.

But Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project claim the plan is not "fit for purpose" and is once again in breach of sections 13 and 14 of the 2008 Act.

Under s.13, Friends of the Earth will argue that the Secretary of State acted unlawfully by not considering delivery risk in a lawful way and that there was no legally sufficient basis for the Secretary of State to conclude that the proposals and policies "will enable" the carbon budgets to be met.

Friends of the Earth will also argue that the Secretary of State unlawfully failed to put forward proposals that "must" contribute to sustainable development.

In relation to s.14, Friends of the Earth will argue that the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan unlawfully does not include information obviously material to the critical issue of risk to the delivery of the carbon budgets.

ClientEarth's legal challenge focuses on the Government's failure to have regard to considerations that are legally essential under s. 13, related to the risks of its plans not delivering the emissions savings required to meet the UK's climate targets.

ClientEarth also argues that the Government's assumption that the projected emissions savings from its policies will be delivered 'in full' was not rational, having regard to the Government's own assessment of delivery risks to key policies. Having an emissions plan that provides confidence in full delivery is a bare minimum requirement for the UK to stay on track to meet its climate targets.

Meanwhile, Good Law Project's legal challenge focuses on the Government's refusal to include a proper assessment of the delivery risk associated with each of the policies and proposals in its Carbon Budget Delivery Plan.

Good Law Project will argue that this is unlawful because it is a breach of s.14, which requires the Secretary of State to publish sufficient information to allow meaningful scrutiny of the Government's net zero policies.

In a statement criticising the Government's policy, ClientEarth CEO Laura Clarke said the "new plan to reduce emissions is not fit for purpose".

She argued that it relies heavily on "unproven and high-risk technological fixes at the expense of near-term action – yet the government 'assumes' that it will be delivered in full, despite these stark risks".

Friends of the Earth lawyer, Katie de Kauwe, added: "Despite having nine months to come up with a lawful strategy, we believe this revised action plan still falls far short of the Government's legal obligations under the Climate Change Act. We said we'd take the Government to court again if we believed that they'd failed to honour their climate commitments – and this is exactly what we are now doing."

In a statement to Local Government Lawyer, a Government spokesperson "strongly" rejected the claims and noted the Government "will be robustly defending these legal challenges".

The Government added: "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 whilst reducing emissions.

"In fact, between 1990 and 2021 we cut emissions by 48 per cent while growing the economy by 65 per cent – decarbonising faster than any other G7 country and our plans to Power Up Britain offer a plan for the next 15 years, setting us on course to meet Net Zero by 2050."

Adam Carey