High Court Finds Net Zero Strategy Unlawful – What Next?

This blog post examines the recent High Court judgment which found the Government's Net Zero Strategy to be unlawful.

In October 2021 the Government published a document called 'Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener' (NZS). Despite its title it is not actually a full strategy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, it is in fact a strategy to achieve the sixth carbon budget that runs from 2033-2037 and will require a 78% cut in carbon emissions from 1990 levels. It doesn't even do that, as we will see.

There were three separate but similar challenges to the publication of the strategy, from Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project, who had their challenges combined into a single two-day hearing on 8 and 9 June. The judgment was issued late on 18 July and can be found here. Numbers in brackets below refer to paragraphs in the judgment.