Friends of the Earth rules out further legal action over government’s climate plan

Friends of the Earth will not be taking legal action against the UK government’s revised climate plan – The Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan – which was published on 29 October 2025, the environmental justice campaigners said today.

Ministers were obliged to publish the revised plan following successful legal challenges in May 2024 by Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth to the previous plan, introduced by Rishi Sunak’s government in 2023 [1].

As the legally binding 2050 deadline for decarbonising the economy draws closer, the campaign group will be pushing for the strongest possible climate action to be included in the next iteration of the government's climate strategy, due to be published in 2027 [2].

Friends of the Earth’s head of policy, Mike Childs, said:

“Thanks to our successful legal challenge the government has been forced to move faster and further in cutting the nation’s reliance on dirty, expensive fossil fuels. This will lead to cheaper bills, warmer homes and thousands of new jobs.

“While we would have liked this revised plan to have been far more ambitious – and less reliant on doubtful, nascent technologies such as sustainable aviation fuel and carbon removal technologies – it is significantly better than previous plans.

“The government’s next climate plan, expected in late 2027, must be better still if the UK is to fully capture the huge benefits of a rapid green transition and deliver the clean, fair and affordable future people urgently need.”

Notes to editors:

1. Under the Climate Change Act the government is legally obliged to set a series of interim targets – known as Carbon Budgets – for achieving its goal of decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet its net zero target by 2050.
2. The latest climate plan covers the period up until 2037, and consists of Carbon Budget 4 (2023-2027), Carbon Budget 5 (2028-2032) and Carbon Budget 6 (2033-2037).
3. The government’s first plan for meeting UK climate targets up until 2037 – The Net Zero Strategy – was introduced in 2021 by the Conservative government. This was subsequently found to be unlawful following successful legal challenges by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project.
4. A revised climate plan, the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (again introduced under the Conservatives) was also found to be unlawful after it was successfully challenged in the courts by Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth in 2024. This led to the third and latest attempt at a lawful climate plan – The Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan – introduced by the Labour government in October 2025.
5. Friends of the Earth has written to the government urging it come up with a bolder, fairer plan when it develops its new climate plan for meeting Carbon Budget 7, covering the period 2038-2042. Parliament has to agree a target for Carbon Budget 7 by 30 June 2026. The government will then have to draw up a new climate plan to ensure this target is met.