“We urgently need a strategy with policies to achieve significant emissions reductions across all sectors of the economy and that will enable the UK to meet its climate targets.”
By Katie de Kauwe and Niall Toru, Lawyers at Friends of the Earth
We need to see urgent action by our government to address the climate crisis and to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions. But unfortunately, that is not what is happening. Of the emissions reductions needed to meet the Sixth Carbon Budget (6CB), the assessment of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) is that there are currently credible policies in place for just 19%.
Friends of the Earth is taking this case because we believe that the new climate plan is inadequate, and the government has once again fallen short of its duties under the Climate Change Agreement (CCA). Our previous case showed that if the government breached its legal obligations, the CCA could be enforced through the courts.
We do not believe that this Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (CBDP) will deliver the emissions savings needed to meet our upcoming budgets, or the UK’s 2030 target (the Paris Agreement Nationally Determined Contribution). It is clear to us that the CBDP is incredibly high-risk, with reliance on technologies which are unproven at scale, such as carbon capture storage. And the government’s prediction that the necessary emissions cuts will be achieved is premised on all these policies being delivered and achieving 100% of their intended carbon savings. In our view, that is simply not tenable. For example, as it is, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scrapped certain policies in September 2023.
We have strong policy criticisms of the CBDP, many of which are shared by other organisations, including the CCC. Alongside the legal case, Friends of the Earth campaigners are working to raise awareness amongst the public and politicians of the government’s failure to enact policies that will achieve our carbon budgets and our 2030 NDC, and the profound negative impacts that this failure will have on the climate, energy bills, energy security and jobs.
Ultimately, Friends of the Earth’s position is that we urgently need a strategy with policies to achieve significant emissions reductions across all sectors of the economy and that will enable the UK to meet its climate targets.
- You can read a full briefing on the legal case here.
- This article was originally published by the Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) March 2024 Newsletter – you can read the newsletter in full here.
- You can can follow the GJA on Facebook and Twitter/X.
