Friends of the Earth threaten legal challenge to Government about…
Ministers may have to rethink their plans for meeting net zero for a second time after green campaigners took the first step towards a legal challenge over inadequate action on climate change. Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, was forced last month to publish a revised version of the government’s net-zero strategy, after the High Court ruled the original was unlawful. The new plan included a mandate to ensure that 28% of car sales were electric by 2025, an extension of grants for heat pumps and a Great British Insulation Scheme. Shapps could now have to revisit the plan again. Friends of the Earth, which brought last year’s court case along with the Good Law Project and ClientEarth, has given him until Friday 28th April to respond to a pre-action letter. It is the first step towards applying for a judicial review. The group’s focus is the lack of detail on the risk of policies failing to deliver the emissions cuts needed for Britain’s legally binding “sixth carbon budget” by 2037. There is no realistic plan to cut the emissions from aviation, other than hopes of so-called “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAF) which is highly unlikely to be available in large amounts. .Tweet Friends of the Earth threaten legal challenge to new net zero strategy Shapps’s department may be required to revisit climate plan to ward off court battle By Adam Vaughan, Environment Editor (The Times) April 23 2023 Ministers may have to rethink their plans for meeting net zero for a second time after green campaigners took the first step towards a legal challenge over inadequate action on climate change. Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, was forced last month to publish a revised version of the government’s flagship net-zero strategy, after the High Court ruled the original was unlawful. The new plan included a mandate to ensure that 28 per cent of car sales were electric by 2025, an extension of grants for heat pumps and a Great British Insulation Scheme. Shapps could now have to revisit the plan again. Friends of the Earth, which brought last year’s court case along with the Good Law Project and ClientEarth, has given him until this Friday to respond to a pre-action letter. It is the first step towards applying for a judicial review. The group’s focus is the lack of detail on the risk of policies failing to deliver the emissions cuts needed for Britain’s legally binding “sixth carbon budget” by 2037, the letter seen by The Times shows. The only assessment of risk the government has made public is in its carbon budget delivery plan, published last month. That document showed the government only has “high confidence” in policies covering 40 per cent of the emissions savings required by 2037. Katie de Kauwe, a lawyer at Friends of the Earth, said that left a huge uncertainty over the levels of confidence that officials have in the remaining 60 per cent. “If a strategy is very high risk, surely the public should be entitled to know about that. At the moment there is very little information in there. Obviously a pre-action letter is not a commitment to litigate, it is a first and important step. But if the government’s response is inadequate, I can certainly see us taking them to court again,” she said. A leaked document indicates that 21 of 44 of the net-zero policies, including on tree-planting and peatland restoration, would be difficult to accomplish The legal basis for the challenge is whether or not Shapps met the Climate Change Act’s obligations to prepare policies that will ensure carbon targets are met. Friends of the Earth won in the High Court last year over that duty, after a judge ruled the net-zero strategy provided insufficient detail. If the group’s demands for more detail on risk are not met, a court hearing is likely to take place this year. The idea that some of the policies may be at risk of delivery is not just speculation. A leaked document by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has shown that 21 of 44 of its net zero policies, including on tree planting and peatland restoration, would be hard to achieve. Last month’s carbon plan also revealed that the go
