The government has confirmed in a letter it would not appeal against a High Court ruling that its “net zero strategy is unlawful”, campaigners have said.
The case came to court after the Good Law Project, Friends of the Earth and Client Earth took legal action to force the government to produce a revised net zero strategy.
The groups claimed there was no way the existing strategy could meet the government’s legal obligations.
Responding to the news, Jo Maugham, Director of Good Law Project, said: “So the government has been forced to accept that its flagship climate strategy is unlawful. Another embarrassing climbdown.
“Rather than threatening communities with fracking, Liz Truss and Jacob-Rees Mogg should focus their efforts on improving the strategy so they meet the UK’s legally-binding climate targets and move away from expensive fossil fuels to deliver on affordable energy.
Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe said: “The existing strategy is far too weak. The Climate Change Committee warned in June that there are only credible policies to achieve 39% of the emission cuts needed.
“Since then, the government has announced plans for fracking, new gas and oil developments and more roads which will make it even harder to make its sums add up.”
A government spokesperson told ELN: “The Net Zero Strategy remains government policy and has not been quashed. The judge made no criticism about the substance of our plans which are well on track and, in fact, the claimants themselves described them as ‘laudable’ during the proceedings.
“The UK has met or exceeded all its carbon budgets and driven down emissions by over 44% since 1990 – the fastest reduction of any G7 country.”
