Campaigner claims ministers do not have legal right to alter timeline of carbon budget pledges at will

Chris Packham has filed a high court legal challenge to the UK government over its decision to weaken key climate policies.

The broadcaster and environmental campaigner has applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to ditch the timetable for phasing out petrol and diesel powered cars and vans, gas boilers, off-grid fossil fuel domestic heating and minimum energy ratings for homes.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said it rejected Packham’s claims and would “robustly” defend the challenge. The measures and their schedule had been set out in the government’s carbon budget delivery plan, which was put before parliament in March this year.

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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Chris Packham has filed a high court legal challenge to the UK government over its decision to weaken key climate policies.

    The broadcaster and environmental campaigner has applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to ditch the timetable for phasing out petrol and diesel powered cars and vans, gas boilers, off-grid fossil fuel domestic heating and minimum energy ratings for homes.

    Packham argues that the secretaries of state have breached this obligation by not confirming or outlining how they still intend to meet the latest budget.

    Rowan Smith, a solicitor at Leigh Day, said: “If the government’s lawyers are correct, then the secretary of state would have carte blanche to rip up climate change policy at the drop of the hat, without any repercussions whatsoever.

    “That’s why this legal challenge is so important: if successful, it will mean that the secretary of state has to keep to their promises to have in place policies that will enable carbon budgets to be met.”

    The application follows a successful legal challenge by Friends of the Earth that the 2021 sixth carbon budget did not include sufficient detail in order to demonstrate how the UK would reach net zero by 2050, as the Climate Change Act 2008 says it must.

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