One year ago, on this day, May 3rd, 2024,
Britain’s climate action plan unlawful, high court rules
Environmental campaign groups took joint action against decision to approve carbon budget delivery plan
Fri 3 May 2024 11.44 BST
The UK government’s climate action plan is unlawful, the high court has ruled, as there is not enough evidence that there are sufficient policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, will now be expected to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 425ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was the UK government has been making ever-bolder pledges around targets for emissions reduction (60 percent reduction by 2050, no – 80! – no, “net zero” for a couple of decades. Promises are easy, actual policies harder and implementing those policies harder still
What I think we can learn from this. You can (and should try, obvs) to win in the courts. But the megamachine rolls on.
See also Kayfabe.
What happened next
Oh, presumably some new plan will be released at some point, and challenged in its turn.
Meanwhile, the environmental protection rules that we have are about to be fed into the woodchipper.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
References
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Also on this day:
May 3, 1978 – First and last “Sun Day”
May 3, 1989 “Exploration Access and Political Power” speech by Hugh Morgan – All Our Yesterdays
May 3, 1990 – From Washington to Canberra, the “greenhouse effect” has elites promising…