Climate campaigner Sarah Finch has brought her fight against local oil drilling permits at Horse Hill near Gatwick to the Supreme Court. That challenge aims to address the permissions for new fossil fuel extraction and the government's plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. If the judges agree with the legal challenge, it could spell the end of new fossil fuel projects in the UK.
The case brought to the Supreme Court by Ms Finch is against the Surrey County Council and argues that the council did not consider the climate impacts, or "downstream emissions", of burning the extracted oil when granting the planning permission for the development. It is estimated that the emissions from the oil extracted could be 10 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent over 20 years of the oil well operation.
A spokesperson for the Surrey County Council said: "The County Council is required to determine planning applications in accordance with the Development Plan, the National Planning Policy Framework, national policy and other material considerations, as set out in legislation and case law. The Horse Hill planning application was determined on this basis".
Recently, it was also reported that the government is planning to remove amendments to the Energy Bill which is currently progressing through the House of Lords which impose a ban on opening new coal mines. This would allow for new coal mining projects to go ahead and potentially release immense amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere from the burning of the extracted coal.
That amendment to that Bill was approved by the House of Lords in April 2023 by a majority of just three, with 197 peers voting in favour of the motion and 194 against. Additionally, the government also plans to drop changes to that Bill which would allow small community energy projects to sell electricity directly to local properties.
Under the Climate Change Act 2008, the government is legally obliged to reduce UK greenhouse gases by 100% compared to the 1990 baseline, by 2050.
