ClientEarth Communications
30th October 2025
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Since the start of 2022, the UK’s High Court has ruled twice in our favour that the previous governments’ climate strategies were not fit-for-purpose.
After the previous government produced a revised climate plan following our first Court win that we still didn’t think was good enough, we went back to Court, won for a second time, and a second revised plan was ordered.
It was published in October 2025 – but does it deliver?
Our lawyers have had a detailed look at the government's plan, and this is what we think:
The plan is an improvement on its predecessors in terms of how much of it is made up of implemented or near-final policies (otherwise referred to as ‘EEP-ready').
The number of both included in the plan means it is now expected to deliver 76% of savings for the sixth carbon budget, up from around 40% previously.
The increased emphasis on improving home energy efficiency is welcome, as it is vital for reducing emissions, cutting bills and strengthening energy security.
However, the Warm Homes Plan has yet to be published, which makes it hard to assess the government’s approach fully.
Although to a lesser extent than previously, the plan still includes high-cost, resource-intensive technologies that are still unproven at scale, including carbon capture and storage and sustainable aviation fuels.
These technologies are also receiving significant government support, which leaves proven high-impact solutions, like home insulation, heat pumps and public transport receiving less.
There is an assumption in the plan that growth in the use of AI and data centres will help meet carbon budgets, but it’s not clear how that stacks up with their clear impact on energy demand.
Moving forward, the Seventh Carbon Budget gives an opportunity for more holistic climate planning, focusing on health, jobs and energy security. This will require meaningful action on transport, agriculture, homes and buildings.
We would also welcome more transparency around the delivery risk attached to individual policies to make sure targets stay on track.
We file a landmark climate case against the then-government
We team up with Friends of the Earth and Good Law Project who had submitted similar cases - they will be heard together.
We have the hearing for our first case at London's Royal Courts of Justice.
As the UK sweltered in record temperatures, the High Court ruled in our favour. The government is ordered to produce a revised climate plan.
The then-government publishes its new climate plan. But we still don't think it's good enough.
We bring another case challenging the government's revised plan.
We head back to Court with our partners.
We win again and the High Court orders the government to produce another revised plan with a deadline of May 2025.
The Hight Court grants the new government an extension: it now has until October 2025 to deliver a revised climate plan.
The second revised plan is published.
In January 2022 we submitted a landmark climate case to the High Court, arguing that the then-government's climate plan was inadequate, and failed to meet the basic requirements of the 2008 Climate Change Act.
After the case was granted permission to proceed in March 2022, we teamed up with Friends of the Earth and Good Law Project, who had submitted similar cases, for a full hearing in the High Court where our claims were heard together.
During the hearing, we argued that the government had failed to show that its policies will reduce emissions sufficiently to meet its legally binding carbon budgets - targets which limit the total amount of greenhouse gases that the UK can emit over five-year periods on the road to net zero.
We also argued that the climate plan failed to include enough information about the policies and their expected effects to allow Parliament and the public to properly scrutinise them.
We said that these failings meant the UK government had breached its legal duties under the Climate Change Act.
After the hearing in 2022, the High Court ruled that the government’s climate plan was indeed in breach of the Climate Change Act, and ordered the government to revise it. A new strategy – the ‘Carbon Budget Delivery Plan’ – was delivered in March 2023.
However, we still thought the revised strategy was inadequate and failed to meet core requirements of the Climate Change Act. We challenged the government in the High Court again in 2023, where we argued:
So we launched a second case.
Alongside our partners, in February 2024 we went back to Court against the government, and the Court once again ruled in our favour, ordering the government to produce another revised plan.
The government initially had 12 months to deliver this after the High Court's ruling in May 2024.
However, July 2024 saw a change of government following the general election, and the new government were granted an extension to the deadline in March 2025.
The Climate Change Act of 2008 legally binds the government to carbon budgets that set limits on the UK's greenhouse gas emissions during five-year periods. They include a target to be over three quarters of the way to net zero in the next 13 years. ‘Net zero’ means that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK is equal to or lower than the amount of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere in the UK. The UK has also committed internationally to reduce its emissions by at least 68% by 2030 from 1990 levels, as part of its ‘Nationally Determined Contribution’ (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.
Missing these targets would have severe consequences for the public’s future health and prosperity. To avoid this risk, the government has to show that its policies are sufficient to meet them. Our legal actions intend to make that happen.
