Net zero: UK Government taken to court over ‘imaginary’ climate policies 

Posted: January 14, 2022 by oldbrew in alarmism, Emissions, government, Legal, net zero
Tags: ,


Climate lawfare strikes again in the latest attempt to cast politicians as climate managers and make all the claims of greenhouse gas theories — including ‘runaway climate change’ — in effect legally enforceable.
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The UK government is being taken to court over accusations that its climate commitments are “woefully inadequate” reports The Big Issue.

Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth (FOE), which is bringing the lawsuit, says the government’s flagship Net Zero Strategy fails to comply with the legal requirements of the 2008 Climate Change Act.

FOE has also accused the government of failing to produce an equality impact assessment for both the Net Zero Strategy and the Heat and Buildings Strategy, which were both published last October.

FOE lawyer Katie de Kauwe said the government’s pathway to net zero emissions by 2050 is “imaginary”, with “no credible plan to deliver” the strategy.

The Net Zero Strategy lays out the steps the government will take to help the UK achieve net zero emissions by 2050; a pathway which is deemed essential in order to prevent runaway climate change.

“Net zero” refers to a scenario in which any emissions being produced are neutralised through carbon capture technology or negative emissions in certain sectors.

This means that overall, the UK will not be producing any “net” emissions.

The government’s Net Zero Strategy was published to much fanfare ahead of the COP26 conference last October.

Though the ambition in the strategy was applauded by some, even the government’s own climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee, (CCC) warned that gaps in implementation and funding remain.

Now, FOE is bringing forward a judicial review to challenge both the Net Zero Strategy and accompanying Heat and Buildings Strategy, which outlines how the government plans to mitigate the impact of increased temperatures in buildings as a result of climate change.

FOE says the Net Zero Strategy fails to comply with the Climate Change Act 2008 because the pathway outlined in the strategy is not supported by government policy showing how it can be fulfilled.

They claim this makes the Net Zero Strategy unlawful under the act, as well as preventing parliament and members of the public from holding the government accountable for failures.

Continued here.

Comments
  1. […] Net zero: UK Government taken to court over ‘imaginary’ climate policies  […]

  2. JB says:

    Katie and the FOEs don’t have enough really serious matters to occupy their time. But they surely will if they do not desist.

  3. Saighdear says:

    Lunchtime browsing: for our germanish cousins: Look how much Wind power we’re getting this now to fill those batteries they keep talking about: 1. https://www.agora-energiewende.de/service/agorameter/chart/power_generation/19.12.2021/22.12.2021/today/ and the stoopit britz 2. https://gridwatch.co.uk. . Now has anyone suffered as a kid from being told to go fishing in that large Puddle in a field or rough country track ? No fish in a month of Sundays: as good as building more windmills. So while the Elites Party, we have to comply. maybe the party dam is about to burst, here’s hoping.

  4. Gamecock says:

    Pardon my schadenfreude.

    Fiends of Earth’s twisted logic follows from the government’s twisted logic. The best outcome would be for the court to rule in FoE’s favor, and the government then repeal the Climate Change Act, Net Zero, and everything else that FoE finds dear. The solution isn’t to try to comply with the impossible, rather to stop trying.

    ‘FOE has also accused the government of failing to produce an equality impact assessment for both the Net Zero Strategy and the Heat and Buildings Strategy’

    “Action to cut household carbon emissions could ‘unfairly burden’ women.”

    Cirrusly, adults said this. Out loud. In public.

  5. oldbrew says:

    This is what FoE want? Coal = 4*wind with today’s weather.

  6. Gamecock says:

    “No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die.”

  7. Jeremy says:

    It could backfire for these deranged blokes. There is now conclusive evidence that mankind’s emissions are irrelevant. They don’t even determine how much CO2 is in the atmosphere.

    https://rclutz.com/2021/11/06/ipcc-data-rising-co2-is-75-natural/

    https://scc.klimarealistene.com/produkt/control-of-atmospheric-co2-part-2/

    ‘https://journals.lww.com/health-physics/Fulltext/2022/02000/World_Atmospheric_CO2,_Its_14C_Specific_Activity,.2.aspx’

    If confronted by this new evidence, the house of cards will collapse. And with it, the impetus for Net Zero.

  8. stpaulchuck says:

    Jeremy says:
    January 14, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    some very interesting articles, Jeremy. A good read.

  9. erl happ says:

    Why don’t the sceptics band together and crowdfund an a legal attack on the government over the mismanagement of scarce resources and its impact on living standards.

  10. pochas94 says:

    Do something to get attention. Like, record temperatures on someone’s deck in central England and have an annual temperature of the year celebration. If the temperature is up, have a “Day of the dead” celebration like the Mexicans. If it is down, do a “happy, happy, happy” celebration. Invite the Queen.

  11. oldbrew says:

    From the abstract of Jeremy’s last link:
    ‘Our results show that the percentage of the total CO2 due to the use of fossil fuels from 1750 to 2018 increased from 0% in 1750 to 12% in 2018, much too low to be the cause of global warming’
    and
    ‘the increase in CO2 that Earth has been experiencing since 1800 appears to have started more than 5,000 years ago.’

    From the conclusions:
    10. ‘The assumption that the increase in CO2 since 1800 is dominated by or equal to the increase in the anthropogenic component is not settled science. Unsupported conclusions of the dominance of the anthropogenic fossil component of CO2 and concerns of its effect on climate change and global warming have severe potential societal implications that press the need for very costly remedial actions that may be misdirected, presently unnecessary, and ineffective in curbing global warming.’

  12. Phoenix44 says:

    Pretty sure we can hold parliament accountable still, though there were attempts to prevent that over Brexit. As for parliament holding the government responsible, that’s its basic function. FOE seem to think the environment needs special mechanism whereas health, education and taxes don’t.

  13. ivan says:

    The first thing a new incoming government should do is repeal the stupid climate change act (2008) and ALL the laws and regulations that hang off it. That would allow a sensible energy policy to be set up that would provide industry and the people with cheap electricity and gas.

  14. oldbrew says:

    Carbon emissions from electricity rise as wind power runs out of puff

    UK’s emissions from electricity last year were more than a fifth higher than in 2020
    14 January 2022

    There was a 17 per cent spike in use of gas because of renewed demand after the peak of the pandemic as well as a lack of wind, leading to emissions of just over 69 million tonnes, up from just under 57 million in 2020, the report said.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/14/carbon-emissions-electricity-rise-wind-power-runs-puff/
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    Net zero is a worse than useless fantasy.

  15. oldbrew says:

    Judge rejects campaigners’ bid to curb UK oil production
    18/01/2022, 12:53pm

    The high court ruling dismissed as “nonsensical” the argument that oil companies are “paid to pollute” under the UK tax regime

    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/01/18/judge-rejects-campaigners-bid-curb-uk-oil-production/

  16. […] Net zero: UK Government taken to court over ‘imaginary’ climate policies  […]