High Court legal challenge to government’s climate adaptation plan

• Photos from outside the High Court available [1].
• A Friends of the Earth legal briefing is here: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/our-legal-challenge-national-adaptation-plan

A legal challenge [2] over the UK government’s failure to protect people, property and infrastructure from the foreseeable impacts of accelerating climate change will be heard in the High Court today.

The groundbreaking, two-day ‘rolled up’ hearing [3] (23-24 July) has been brought by Friends of the Earth and two people whose lives are already severely impacted by the climate crisis:

•    Disability activist Doug Paulley [4] has a number of health conditions which are being exacerbated by searing summer temperatures, causing not just great distress and discomfort, but also putting him at increased risk of serious harm. These include an impairment that affects the nervous system (autonomic dysfunction) which has contributed to several strokes during Doug’s life, as well as diabetes and a heart condition.
•    Kevin Jordan [5], who is also disabled, was made homeless shortly before Christmas 2023, after his house in Hemsby, Norfolk was demolished after coastal erosion fuelled by sea level rise and severe storms caused by climate change put it in acute severe danger of falling into the sea.

Friends of the Earth and the co-claimants argue that the current National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) [6] continues to fall short and is unlawful on the grounds that it breaches the Climate Change Act for failing to set out lawful ‘adaptation objectives’, and for failing to consider and publish an assessment of the risks to delivery of the plans and policies included.

They will also argue that it breaches the human rights of the individual claimants, and that marginalised groups – such as older and disabled people – and those living in areas most at risk from climate change, are disproportionately affected by the impacts of the climate crisis and the government’s failure to produce a credible or lawful plan to help protect them. The government also should also have properly assessed equality impacts of its adaptation plans and did not do so.

Third National Adaptation Programme

Under the Climate Change Act 2008, the government of the day is required to produce and implement a National Adaptation Programme every five years, with the latest (NAP3) published in July 2023.

The programme is required to set out the government’s climate adaptation objectives, along with its plans and policies for meeting them, to protect communities in the UK from the impacts of climate change, such as extreme heat, flooding and coastal erosion. Friends of the Earth argues the objectives were set unlawfully, in breach of the Climate Change Act and Human Rights Act requirements.

Last week, the Climate Change Committee [7] called on ministers to ‘strengthen’ the NAP, having previously warned [8] that the current programme “falls far short of what is required. Evidence of the UK’s inadequate response to worsening climate impacts continues to mount”. Worryingly, it also highlighted that “only around 40% of the short-term actions to address urgent risks identified in the last Climate Change Risk Assessment are progressed”.

In April this year, the European Court of Human Rights [9] ruled in favour of a group of older Swiss women, who argued that the lack of action on climate change had violated their human rights. The ECHR case has relevance to this legal challenge – which will be heard by a UK court – not least because it also deals with deficient state action on climate and its adverse impact on health and human rights.

Earlier this year Friends of the Earth – along with ClientEarth and Good Law Project – successfully challenged the government’s plan for meeting the UK’s emission reduction target, the Carbon Budget Delivery Programme [10]. The High Court has ordered that a revised plan be drawn up by 2 May 2025 at the latest.

New climate adaptation plan required

In its recent manifesto [11], the new Labour government pledged to “improve resilience and preparation across central government, local authorities, local communities, and emergency services.” Friends of the Earth is calling on the government to commit to introducing a robust and comprehensive NAP, aligning with Climate Change Committee advice. The environmental justice organisation echoes the committee’s call [8] for urgent government action in three key areas:

• Governance: The government must make adaptation a top priority and ensure effective cross-government collaboration to ensure all departments are engaged with adaptation and recognise the challenges climate impacts pose across multiple sectors.
• Investment: Adaptation funding must be increased to deal with the climate challenge we face. The CCC warns “NAP3 does not tackle effectively the barriers to investment, such as low perceived urgency of adaptation, lack of clear targets and the limited understanding of adaptation actions”.
• Monitoring: Better monitoring and data collection is crucial for responding to the impacts of climate change. Progress must be capable of being effectively tracked. Without better information people cannot assess the risks they are exposed to, and parliament cannot hold the government to account.

Last week (Friday 19 July) Friends of the Earth published new analysis showing that millions of lives are threatened by extreme heat in England due to the UK's lack of climate preparations [12].

Friends of the Earth climate campaigner, Alison Dilworth, said:

“Our homes, lives and livelihoods are being put at risk by the government’s weak, and we believe unlawful, climate adaptation plans.

“The failure to make the nation more resilient to the floods, storms and heatwaves that are increasingly battering Britain is already affecting millions of people across the country – with older and disabled people among those most at risk.

“Labour must deliver on its pre-election pledge to improve resilience and preparation by urgently drawing up a much tougher climate adaptation programme to prepare the UK for the enormous challenges of a dangerously warming planet, with those most affected involved in its planning.”

Kevin Jordan, said:

“I was told my house would be safe for a century, but 14 years after moving in it had to be demolished due to the accelerating rate of coastal erosion.

“The government’s adaptation plans are completely inadequate for dealing with the threat that climate change to people and the economy.

“The National Adaptation Programme should be ripped up and replaced with a new plan that better protects us all from the escalating impacts of the climate crisis.”

Doug Paulley, said:

“Disabled people are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, but once again they have been badly let down by an adaptation plan that completely fails to address the particular - and often severe - threats we face from extreme weather like flooding and heatwaves, and wider impacts such as power cuts during severe storms.

“The lack of planning makes me fearful that in an emergency disabled people won’t be properly protected.

“We urgently need a new adaptation programme that recognises the acute threat disabled people face and includes proper planning to protect them, such as mandatory care home procedures for protecting residents from flooding and extreme heatwaves.”

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith said:

“For the first time in UK legal history, the High Court will have to determine whether the government’s policy to adapt to climate change is lawful, including as to whether our clients’ human rights have been breached. This is a truly landmark climate change case, which is likely to have far reaching implications for generations to come. We look forward to presenting our arguments as forcefully as we can at the hearing.”

•    A previous Friends of the Earth press release with facts and figures on flooding, heat and coastal erosion is here: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/inadequate-climate-protection-plan-be-examined-high-court

Ends

Notes to editors:

1. Pictures and footage of co-claimants Doug Paulley Kevin Jordan and Friends of the Earth are downloaded here. Further footage and photos of Kevin and Doug are here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ah0rg734u3432t7774in8/AGFPhkcdXMbpAGMd5-oO5KU?rlkey=rphko4atqb89gypc8j5plw5rr&dl=0 
2. Friends of the Earth and the other claimants argue that the current plan (NAP3) continues to fall short and is unlawful on the grounds that it breaches the Climate Change Act for failing to set out lawful ‘adaptation objectives’, and for failing to consider and publish an assessment of the risks to delivery of the plans and policies included. The groundbreaking case, believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, also asks the court to rule that the deficiencies in the national plan breach the human rights of the co-claimants by failing to protect their lives, homes and property from foreseeable impacts of the climate crisis. The claimants also allege that the government failed to assess equality impacts of its programme correctly in accordance with the Equality Act’s ‘public sector equality duty’. A Friends of the Earth’s skeleton argument will be available on request once the legal challenge begins.
3. In a ‘rolled up’ hearing the question of permission is often heard in tandem with the substantive case itself. In practice this is effectively the same as a trial, as the whole case is heard.
4. Disability campaigner  Doug Paulley, lives in a care home in Wetherby in Yorkshire and has a number of long-term conditions that make him particularly susceptible to overheating.
5. Kevin Jordan, who is a member of the Save Hemsby Coastline campaign, lost his home shortly before Christmas 2023. Mr Jordan wrote an article for the Metro newspaper on his experience: “I was told my £130,000 house would stand for 100 years – it’s days away from falling off a cliff”: https://metro.co.uk/2023/12/08/130k-house-falling-off-a-cliff-edge-homeless-days-19947077/
6. The government’s Third National Adaptation Plan was published in 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/third-national-adaptation-programme-nap3
7. 2024 Progress Report to Parliament | CCC: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/progress-in-reducing-emissions-2024-report-to-parliament/
8. Planning for climate impacts falls short once again | Climate Change committee press release: https://www.theccc.org.uk/2024/03/13/planning-for-climate-impacts-falls-short-once-again/#:~:text=Climate%20change%20is%20now%20bringing,climate%20impacts%20continues%20to%20mount
9. European court rules human rights violated by climate inaction: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68768598
10. High Court judgment finds government’s climate plan ‘unlawful’ – again: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/latest/landmark-high-court-judgment-finds-governments-climate-plan-unlawful-again
11. Labour’s Manifesto said: “Preparing for the future not only means tackling the climate and nature emergencies, but also adapting to the changes they will bring to our environment. Without action, flooding and coastal erosion will pose greater risks to lives, livelihoods and people’s wellbeing. The Conservatives’ poor risk management, and a disjointed approach across government and regulators have left Britain badly exposed. Labour will improve resilience and preparation across central government, local authorities, local communities, and emergency services.”
12. The new Friends of the Earth analysis (embargoed until 00:01 hours, Friday 19 July) is available on request and will be published on the Friends of the Earth website: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/latest/press-releases
13. The Friends of the Earth legal team managing this case includes Will Rundle, Niall Toru, Gabhan O’Tighearnaigh. The Claimants are represented by leading environmental barristers: David Wolfe KC of Matrix Chambers, Margherita Cornaglia of Doughty St, and Nikolaus Grubeck of Monckton Chambers; and by Rowan Smith and Julia Eriksen at the law firm Leigh Day LLP.