London's High Court has ruled a new government plan aimed at meeting the UK’s climate targets as unlawful.
Charities Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth had taken the government to court over its upcoming Carbon Budget Plan, alongside the Good Law Project.
Such plans were laid out by former net zero secretary Grant Shapps and are set to come into effect next March, determining how the UK will achieve climate targets until 2037 as part of a wider goal of meeting net zero pledges by 2050.
The groups had argued in February that Shapps acted unlawfully by approving the plans without adequate information as to whether individual policies could actually be met.
High Court judge Clive Sheldon ruled in their favour on Friday, stating Shapps’ decision-making was “simply not justified by the evidence”.
“If, as I have found, the secretary of state did make his decision on the assumption that each of the proposals and policies would be delivered in full, then [his] decision was taken on the basis of a mistaken understanding of the true factual position,” Sheldon said.