Good Law Project has launched a new legal challenge against the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, to force the department to make the UK’s net zero climate strategy fit for purpose by 30 June of this year.
The claim is that the government’s current strategy fails to meet its obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008.
The legal action seeks to compel the government to revise and strengthen the Net Zero Strategy and set out quantifiable policies to reduce emissions.
The Climate Change Act requires the government to produce carbon budgets every five years that set out emission reduction targets for the UK, and give detailed plans and policies for how the UK will reach that target.
The government has so far set a target of net zero by 2050, but has failed to set out the specific policies needed to lead us there.
‘Making promises that you can leave to future politicians to meet is easy – and pointless. What we need is a real plan, starting now, for how we get to Net Zero. To do anything else is to lie to our children.’
JO MAUGHAM
Director of Good Law Project
According to Good Law Project, ‘the government is, inexplicably, refusing to release the documents that set out its calculations of expected emissions reductions for each initiative’.
Good Law Project has applied to the High Court to force the government to disclose these documents.
To lawfully meet the requirements of the Act, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy must publish a strategy detailing these climate plans and policies, assess their efficacy and demonstrate how each initiative will bring about the necessary reductions in emissions.
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