A landmark court decision has ruled that the UK government’s net-zero strategy is illegal because it does not explain how targets will be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It discovers that parliament and the public were kept in the dark about a failure to meet a key emission-cutting target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The High Court decision, issued in the midst of the Met Office’s first-ever red alert for extreme heat, stated that the strategy, which outlines plans to decarbonize the economy, falls short of the government’s obligations under the Climate Change Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Mr Justice Holgate’s decision, Greg Hands, the minister for business, energy, and industrial strategy who was in charge of signing off on the net-zero strategy, did not have the legally required information on how carbon budgets would be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless, he approved the strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth, the Good Law Project, and environmental campaigner Jo Wheatley filed the legal challenges, which were heard together at the Royal Courts of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind-the-scenes calculations by civil servants to quantify the impact of emissions cuts from policies in the net-zero strategy did not add up to the reductions required to meet the sixth carbon budget – the volume of greenhouse gases the UK can emit from 2033 to 2037 – were revealed in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 5% shortfall in the sixth carbon budget is significant in terms of climate change, totalling around 75 million tonnes of CO2 – nearly the total annual emissions from all car travel in the UK.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A landmark court decision has ruled that the UK government’s net-zero strategy is illegal because it does not explain how targets will be met. It discovers that parliament and the … <\/p>\n