On 20 September 2023 Rishi Sunak announced his government would delay or abandon key climate targets around vehicles and gas boilers. 

I believe those decisions were unlawfully made and we are raising £75,000 to mount a judicial review in the High Court.

The decisions to delay and abandon key Net Zero policies and proposals were made by Claire Coutinho MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and Mark Harper MP, Secretary of State for Transport on the same day they were announced by the PM.

The decisions flout decision-making processes set down in the Climate Change Act 2008 to ensure legally binding targets for emission reductions can be met and undermine years of careful policy making on these issues. Once published, the public and industry should be able to rely on the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, expect it to be delivered and should be notified and consulted if the Government wishes to vary, delay or abandon key policies within it.

At a time of escalating global heating and biodiversity loss we must hold our elected representatives to account. 

Now is a time for truth, for action, for accountability. 

For a government to drop key policies and proposals without other measures in place to ensure emissions targets can be met is simply unacceptable. 

Their decisions affect each and every one of us, now and in the future. 

Is the Prime Minister a Climate Leader or a Climate Loser?

We say the courts should decide.

To delay key proposals is to delay action during the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. 

To abandon key policies is to abandon responsibility for current and future generations of all life, nationally and globally. 

This case will set a precedent that our leaders cannot act 'on a whim' without facing the legal consequences. It will enable legal scrutiny of decisions made, particularly ones which have such severe consequences in our changing world. Our politicians are not beyond the law.

In this claim, we want the Court to affirm that the inclusion of a proposal or policy within a Carbon Budget Delivery Plan is legally meaningful. Once published, the public and industry should be able to rely on the Plan to arrange their affairs and should be notified and consulted if the Government wishes to vary, delay or abandon key policies within it.  

We are raising £75,000 to cover legal costs of this Judicial Review.

Thank you for your support.