UK Government’s climate plan faces further legal dispute

The UK Government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan will be the subject of a three-day hearing amid claims it breaches the Climate Change Act. 

In a legal pursuit led by ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth, and Good Law Project, the UK government will face three days in High Court, starting 20 February, over its “weak and inadequate” climate plan. This follows a series of successful legal challenges led by the three organisations in 2022 when the High Court ruled that the UK Government’s climate plan breached the 2008 Climate Change Act and lacked specific evidence for delivery.  

What’s being disputed?  

The Government unveiled its revised plans in the Spring 2023 budget, with the following months sparking criticism among campaigners and green leaders who were critical of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s approach to climate policy. 

The Climate Change Act 2008 commits government’s to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050, a target which is central to the legal challenge. Katie de Kauwe, Friends fo the Earth lawyer, explains:  

“[The climate plan] lacks critical information on the very real risks that its policies will fail to deliver the cuts needed to meet legally binding carbon reduction targets and relies too heavily on unproven technologies.” 

The challengers argue the Government’s plan is heavily reliant on high-risk technologies that are not yet prevalent or proven in their efficacy. It will be debated that the Government must accurately detail the risks associated with its plan and articulate the reality of delivery. It is hoped that the legal pressure will force the Government to publish risk tables associated with the plan, something that is yet to have been done.  

“Instead of plugging the gaps identified by their own expert advisors, ministers are standing behind a strategy that is riddled with policy holes and reliance on risky techno-fixes,” says Sam Hunter Jones, ClientEarth lawyer. “This approach flies in the face of key legal requirements and puts the UK well off track from meeting its legally binding commitments, which is why we’re back in court.”  

News will follow in the coming days about the direction the legal disputes take and the eventual outcome. Should the Government find the High Court rule against them once more, it will have to take a serious dive into its climate policy strategy and reconsider the very basis of how it will achieve net zero. 

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