ClientEarth is taking the Government to court to strengthen its Net Zero strategy for a second time.
On 18 July 2022 the High Court ruled against the Government’s net-zero strategy, concluding that it breaches the Climate Change Act, and needed to be strengthened.

The Government published its revised Net Zero strategy in March, but ClientEarth remains unconvinced and will be going back to court alongside Friends of the Earth and Good Law Project, saying that the plan still breaches the Climate Change Act.

At the heart of the matter is whether new and developing technologies can or cannot be considered in the plan. AS such it is something of a philosophical debate over whether technology can be relied upon to develop (such a CCUS) or whether the future plan must rely on existing proven methods.

ClientEarth CEO, Laura Clarke, said “The Government’s new plan to reduce emissions is not fit for purpose. It relies heavily on unproven and high-risk technological fixes at the expense of near-term action – yet the Government ‘assumes’ that it will be delivered in full, despite these stark risks."

Between 1990 and 2022, UK territorial carbon dioxide emissions decreased by 45.1 per cent and has a legally binding requirement, the first major economy to do so, to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. It also has a commitment under the Paris Agreement (a nationally determined contribution or NDC) to cut emissions by 68 per cent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.

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