UK climate campaigners have launched a judicial review against the government challenging its “outdated” energy policies.
The plantiffs issued proceedings for the revision of the energy planning policies on Monday after officials refused to overhaul the rules, which they said could be used to support major fossil fuel power plants or fracking.
The campaigners said the government’s policies are in direct contravention of the government’s promises to tackle carbon emissions, including in the Paris agreement and in its own net zero legislation.
Jolyon Maugham, a director at the Good Law Project, told the Guardian newspaper: “We are teetering on the brink of a climate catastrophe. Yet the government is refusing to even commit to a review of an outdated energy policy that permits fossil fuel projects to be forced through. Our legal challenge seeks to change that.”
The non-profit legal group is working alongside climate campaigners Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity, and George Monbiot, a Guardian columnist, to call for a revision of the government’s energy policy.
“The government’s outdated energy policy means approval to frack in Lancashire or permission for a new open cast coal mine can be forced through, despite our national and international commitments to tackle the climate emergency,” Maugham said.
The National Policy Statement for Energy (NPS) was set by officials in 2011 to avoid an energy supply crunch but the campaigners said it is still being used to approve fossil fuel projects, despite a surge in renewable energy.
“We’ve launched the legal case, after the government told us they weren’t prepared to review the rules that supported fossil fuel developments,” Ecotricity’s Vince confirmed on Twitter.