Our climate change act does not depend on EU

Sir, Pilita Clark, in “UK move to set CO2 target faces challenge” (FT.com, June 30), quotes a press release by the Global Warming Policy Foundation alleging that the fifth carbon budget “may be unlawful” as a consequence of the EU referendum result.

There is no foundation to this claim. The UK’s Climate Change Act is a domestic law. It doesn’t depend on EU membership. Carbon budgets are set primarily to keep the UK on the most cost-effective trajectory to meeting its long-term domestic emissions targets. Ironically, the solution that was proposed to this fictional legal problem — a delay in adopting the carbon budget — would constitute a clear breach of UK law. As it happens, EU ambition is one of many other relevant considerations when budgets are set but there is no suggestion that Brexit would affect this, let alone in a way which would require UK ambition to be lowered.

The EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme is no reason for hesitation either. It is relevant when we set a budget but mainly because of a technicality in how we currently use it to count our emissions. There’s also no concrete reason to suspect we’d stop using the ETS on leaving the EU — it currently applies to Iceland and Norway.

Any considerable changes in the UK’s situation that would elicit a reassessment of the fifth carbon budget (like stopping the use of the ETS to count emissions, or bringing ambition in line with the Paris Agreement) would be covered by provisions in the Act that allow changes to be made. But this scenario would involve a scaling up of ambition — as well it should — not a decrease.

Given current political uncertainty, the setting of a clear and unambiguous fifth carbon budget is greatly to be welcomed. The Climate Change Act is doing exactly what it should be doing: providing certainty to investors and ensuring the UK will continue to lead in climate action in the years ahead.

Jonathan Church

Climate & Energy Lawyer,

ClientEarth,

London E8, UK