Climate Law Matters

On 3 May 2024, the UK’s plan to meet the Sixth Carbon Budget set under the Climate Change Act 2008 (‘CCA 2008’) was declared unlawful for the second time by the High Court J in R (Friends of the Earth & Oths) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2024] EWHC 995 (Admin). In this episode, junior counsel for Friends of the Earth, Catherine Dobson, of 39 Essex Chambers, sets out the context of the judgment, the issues and the broader implications of this case. She considers in depth the nature of the analysis required of the Secretary of State under section 13(1) and (3) of the CCA 2008, as well as the information that the Secretary of State is required to include in its report laid before Parliament, pursuant to section 14 of the CCA 2008, to ensure transparency and accountability in relation to climate policy.

Dr Alex Lee delves further into the role of the precautionary principle in the context of climate modelling to assess resilience – essential in adapting to climate change. He considers the case study of landfill sites and caps; and how their vulnerability to climate change should be analysed. Alex then explains how the precautionary principle can be an effective tool before considering more generally how biases in risk assessment can be addressed.

The Lifescape Project is concerned with creating a world rich in wild landscapes through a multi-disciplinary approach. Elsie Blackshaw-Crosby, Managing Lawyer at the charity, discusses her journey and how she ended up working with the project before setting out, in more detail, how the charity uses the law to achieve its objectives. Elsie also discusses the charity’s recently issued judicial review challenge to the Government’s Biomass Strategy, explaining why the charity is concerned about the strategy, in particular its implications for climate change and biodiversity, and how the claim has been formulated. You can access the Lifescape Project’s Rewilding Law Hub here; a legal briefing on the Biomass Strategy challenge here and a scientific briefing on biomass and biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (“BECCS”) here.

Whilst there has been a shift in the UK to less meat and dairy consumption, globally the amount consumed is only likely increase. A significant proportion of animal feed is soya, which is imported from South America. Rachel O’Connor explains why using insect protein as animal feed makes sense from a land use, climate change, biodiversity and food system perspective.  She sets out the regulatory framework for animal feed in the UK; and the legal barriers to the wider adoption of insects as an important source of protein. Rachel O’Connor is a partner in the agriculture team at Michelmores, specialising in sustainable agriculture practices such as insects as feed and food. Rachel led a team of lawyers advising on the legal aspects of the World Wildlife Fund’s roadmap to accelerating insect protein in UK feeds. #ClimateChange #InsectProtein #AnimalFeed #SustainableAgriculture Resources: You can access the WWF report here; and articles by Rachel O’Connor, here.

David Rouch is a financial services partner at Freshfields with expertise in sustainable investing. He is the author of the “Social Licence For Financial Markets: Reaching For The End And Why It Counts” (Palgrave Macmillan 2020), as well as the co-author of “A Legal Framework For Impact: Sustainability Impact in Investor Decision-making” – a report commissioned by UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, Principles for Responsible Investment and The Generation Foundation and published by Freshfields. The report contains ground-breaking analysis on the extent to which legal frameworks enable investors to consider impact in their activities across 11 jurisdictions: the EU, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Japan, South Africa, the Netherlands, UK and the US.In this episode, David provides an overview of the report. He explains what “investing for sustainability impact” (“IFSI”) means; and how it differs from other forms of sustainable investing, such as ESG. He sets out, in broad terms, the findings in the report.Resources: You can access the “Legal Framework for Impact” report, here. You can learn more about David’s work, here.

Dr McClean continues her interview with Steph David. In this episode, Dr McClean discusses deep geothermal energy and how it is regulated, including both the environmental and financial risks associated with this form of energy. She considers the extent to which the Government currently relies on geothermal energy in its Energy Security Plan; and provides her views as to the key legal developments and barriers in the sector.Resources: You can access Dr McClean’s paper, McClean, A and Pedersen, O.W “The role of regulation in geothermal energy in the UK” (2023) in the Journal of Energy Policy, here. For further information on her research, you can access her page here.

Professor Sir Dieter Helm is a Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. From 2012 to 2020, he was the Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital. He provides expert advice to UK and European governments, regulators and companies across energy and climate, regulation, utilities and infrastructure. His new book, “Legacy: How to build the sustainable economy,” will be published in November by Cambridge University Press.In this episode, Professor Helm shares his views with Steph David on the extent to which theenergy security plan achieves, what he describes as, the energy trilemma. He argues that there needs to be a clear system plan for energy in the UK and a delivery framework, which should include the incentivisation of finance flows into the necessary infrastructure. Professor Helm also discusses the carbon leakage risk consultation, in particular the carbon border adjustment mechanism, and ways of addressing the territorial focus of carbon emissions.Resources:  Professor Sir Dieter Helm’s website