The UK government is facing a new  legal challenge over its climate record and its plans for the future.

Three organisations have revealed they are taking the government to court for the second time in under two years over what they describe as “its feeble and inadequate strategy for tackling climate change”.

Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project say the government’s revised net zero strategy – the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, published 30 March – is unlawful and have filed papers at the High Court requesting a judicial review.

The news follows a damning progress report from the Climate Change Committee, published last two weeks ago which found there are only credible plans for less than a fifth of the emissions cuts needed to meet the UK’s legally binding climate targets. This is down from the government’s independent climate advisors assessment last year that just 39% of plans were fit for purpose.

The High Court required the government to publish a revised strategy following successful legal challenges by the three organisations in July 2022, in which the judge underlined the critical expert role of the CCC  by stating their advice must be given “considerable weight”.

In last year’s landmark judgment, the High Court ruled that the net zero strategy, which was supposed to set out plans to decarbonise the economy, didn’t meet the government’s obligations under the Climate Change Act to produce detailed climate policies that show how the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets will be met.

After carefully studying the detail of the revised Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, lawyers for Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project say this revised plan breaches the Climate Change Act too.

The three organisations argue that the plan provides no real information on the government’s assessment of the risk of the proposals and policies not being delivered and not meeting legally binding climate targets. At the same time, the information that the plan does include confirms that many of the technologies being relied on to deliver substantial emissions savings are high risk, raising serious questions about the government’s assumption that they will be delivered ‘in full’. ClientEarth argues that this approach is so clearly flawed that it is unlawful and fails to comply with central provisions of the Climate Change Act.

Friends of the Earth lawyer, Katie de Kauwe, said: “Despite having nine months to come up with a lawful strategy, we believe this revised action plan still falls far short of the government’s legal obligations under the Climate Change Act. We said we’d take the government to court again if we believed that they’d failed to honour their climate commitments – and this is exactly what we are now doing.

“The climate crisis is already battering Britain and the world with record heatwaves, droughts and storms, and unless politicians take the action needed to slash emissions these impacts will become more severe and more frequent. The good news is that building a green economy won’t just slash emissions; it will also create new jobs, boost energy security and help tackle the soaring cost-of-living.”

Good Law Project’s Legal Director, Emma Dearnaley, added: “We’re now in the crucial decade to stop irreversible damage from global heating, so it’s vital that we can all see if the Government’s flagship plan for tackling the climate emergency is actually going to work.

“It is deeply alarming that the Government’s new plan does not properly set out the risks of key policies missing these essential goals. What are they trying to hide?

“That is why we are pursuing legal action to demand transparency and help us and others to hold the Government to account on its new climate change strategy.”

ClientEarth CEO, Laura Clarke, continued: “The government’s new plan to reduce emissions is not fit for purpose. It relies heavily on unproven and high-risk technological fixes at the expense of near-term action – yet the government ‘assumes’ that it will be delivered in full, despite these stark risks.

“People in the UK and globally need to see the UK take urgent, decisive climate action. But instead, we see hesitation and delay from the government and are almost certain to miss emissions reduction targets.

“As the CCC has again reiterated, real action on emissions can happen with ‘no regrets’ policies that will also help struggling households. Measures such as making homes more energy efficient and investing in active and public transport can both reduce emissions and increase energy security for the benefit of present and future generations.”