R (Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for BEIS (Net Zero Strategy)

Ratio Decidendi

Facts

Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project (with Joanna Wheatley joined as a second claimant) brought linked judicial review claims against the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy over the Government's Net Zero Strategy (NZS), which was intended to show how the UK would meet its carbon budgets under the Climate Change Act 2008. The claimants did not seek to have the NZS quashed, and expressly accepted that much of its content was commendable, but asked the court to grant declaratory relief if any of their grounds of challenge succeeded. Cotter J had earlier granted permission for all three claims to be heard together given the overlap between the grounds.

Judgment Summary

Holgate J dismissed the claimants' human-rights-based ground (ground 3) but upheld grounds 1 and 2 in part. On ground 1, he held that although section 13(1) of the Climate Change Act 2008 did not require the Secretary of State to be satisfied by quantitative analysis alone that the whole of the required emissions reductions would be achieved, the Secretary of State had not been briefed on, and so had not taken into account, the individual and combined contribution to emissions reductions estimated by his own officials for particular policies — a matter he was legally obliged to consider. On ground 2, the court found that matters which ought to have been addressed in the NZS to comply with the reporting duty in section 14(1) of the Act had been omitted, depriving Parliament and the public of the ability to properly scrutinise the Government's proposals.

Key Quotes

Subsequent Treatment