Court orders UK government to explain how net zero policies will reach targets

A lawyer for ClientEarth, one of the claimants, says the decision ‘forces the government to put in place climate plans that will actually address the crisis’. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The high court has ordered the government to outline exactly how its net zero policies will achieve emissions targets, after a legal challenge from environmental groups.

Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project had all taken legal action over the government’s flagship climate change strategy, arguing it had illegally failed to include the policies it needed to deliver the promised emissions cuts.