High Court rules Government net zero strategy unlawful

The High Court has ruled that the Government’s net zero strategy breaches the Climate Change Act, and needs to be strengthened.

The Climate Change Act legally binds the Government to carbon budgets setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions over five-year periods. This includes a target to be over three quarters of the way to net zero in the next 13 years. As well as this, under the Paris Agreement, the UK has committed to reduce its emissions by at least 68% by 2030 from 1990 levels.

In January, ClientEarth, an environmental law charity, submitted the case to the High Court and then teamed up with Friends of the Earth and Good Law Project for a full hearing in the High Court.

The team argued that the Government had failed to sufficiently show that its policies will reduce emissions to meet its legally binding carbon budgets. They also argued that there was not enough information about the policies and their expected effects in the strategy for effective scrutiny from Parliament and the public.

During the case, it was revealed that the Government's plans only account for 95 per cent of the reductions needed to meet the sixth carbon budget, however this information is not included in the net zero strategy.

The High Court ruled that the government's net zero strategy, which sets out plans to decarbonise the economy, does not meet Climate Change Act obligations to produce detailed climate policies showing how the UK’s legally-binding carbon budgets will actually be met.

The ruling states that the public and parliament were not made aware of a shortfall in meeting a key target to cut emissions. In the government's net zero strategy polices, the civil servants' calculations to determine the impact of emissions cuts did not add up to the necessary reductions to meet the sixth carbon budget.

The Court also found that the Minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Hands, the minister responsible signing off the strategy, did not have the legally required information on how carbon budgets would be met.

Following the ruling, the Government must now update its climate strategy within eight months to include a quantified account of how its policies will actually achieve climate targets. The updated strategy will then be presented to parliament for scrutiny by MPs.

ClientEarth lawyer Sam Hunter-Jones said: "This decision is a breakthrough moment in the fight against climate delay and inaction. It forces the Government to put in place climate plans that will actually address the crisis. It’s also an opportunity to move further and faster away from the expensive fossil fuels that are adding to the crippling cost of living crisis people are facing."

The ruling came on the day when the UK hit record temperatures with some parts of the country hitting 40 degrees.