Climate campaigners won a legal challenge claiming the government’s plan breached climate law as it omitted vital details to show how targets for reducing the level of harmful gases released into the atmosphere would be met. “The government’s strategy to reach net zero is inadequate and illegal, the Supreme Court found, following a successful legal challenge,” the Good Law Project reported Monday. Cases brought by Friends of the Earth, environmental law charity ClientEarth and legal campaign group Good Law Project were heard together at the High Court in London last month. The plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that the policies for the emission reduction targets only added about 95 percent of the carbon reductions required to be achieved. Mr Justice Holgate concluded that without information about the contribution of individual policies to the Government’s climate targets, the Business Secretary, who approved the plan, could not decide whether the main target would be met. The plaintiffs argued that the government had failed to explain how the emissions reduction targets would be met – and the judge agreed. The court said the detail was important, not only because it would allow parliament to scrutinize the plan and hold it to account, but because it would provide transparency so the public could properly understand how the government intended to achieve the goals. The court has now ordered the secretary of state to submit a new report, to go before parliament before the end of March 2023. It has also rejected an application for an appeal on the basis that there are no grounds for any real prospect of success. The plaintiffs failed on a third ground in which they unsuccessfully argued that the government’s obligations under the 2008 Climate Change Act should be interpreted in accordance with human rights law. The court ruling comes as Britain is gripped by extreme heat, with flights grounded and temperature records broken twice in one day in Wales on Monday. It also comes as Prince Charles said net zero commitments had “never been more vital as we all find ourselves under today’s worrying record temperatures across Britain and Europe”. “As I have tried to point out for some time now, the climate crisis really is a real emergency and it is absolutely necessary to deal with it – for Cornwall, the country and the rest of the world,” he told a garden party in the Boconnoc grounds. House, near Plymouth. Welcoming the court’s decision, the Good Law Project said: “The dangerous heatwave this week is a stark reminder of the very real threat we face. Our infrastructure and homes were designed for a climate that no longer exists. This can’t wait. The Net Zero goal should be a road map to a sustainable future – not a lie we tell our children.” Friends of the Earth called it a “significant victory for climate justice”, adding that the renewed plan “should include sound policies that stand up to the scrutiny of the Commission on Climate Change (CCC)”. Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe said: “This landmark decision is a huge victory for climate justice and government transparency. It shows that the Climate Change Act is legislation that has teeth and can, if necessary, be enforced through our court system if the government fails to comply with its legal duties.” The Commission on Climate Change recently found that there are credible plans for just two-fifths of the emissions reductions needed to achieve a critical step on the path to net zero. Sam Hunter Jones, senior lawyer at ClientEarth, said the court’s decision “reaffirms that the government must show how its plans will fully meet the budget’s carbon targets”. The government’s approach must also be realistic and based on what it actually expects its plans to achieve. A BEIS spokesman said: “The Net Zero Strategy remains government policy and has not been cancelled. The judge made no criticism of the substance of our plans, which are well under way and, in fact, the plaintiffs themselves described them as ‘complimentary’ during the proceedings.”
