In Roman times, the British Isles were warm enough to grow wine grapes; the era was actually called the Roman Warm Period. The weather there now is not conducive to that, as we know, but that hasn't stopped climate scolds from agitating against our modern technological lifestyle to prevent any possible return to being able to grow wine grapes in Britain — which may or may not happen regardless of human activities.
But now we see there may be at least some renewed emphasis on actual data — thanks to one British judge. It's a mixed result, being that the suit was brought by environmental groups, but the result may well have farther-reaching implications.
On Friday, a British High Court judge tossed the U.K. government's Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, noting that it is "vague and unquantified."
Justice Clive Sheldon sided Friday with three environmental groups that brought the case, ruling that the government's decision to approve its Carbon Budget Delivery Plan last year was “simply not justified by the evidence.”
The plan outlined how the U.K. aims to achieve its climate targets, including pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about two-thirds of 1990 levels by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050.
The judge said the details in the draft plan were “vague and unquantified,” and didn't provide officials with enough information on whether the plan should be approved.
Now, there's a catch. (Isn't there always a catch?) The suit was brought by several environmental groups, who are claiming that the government has not released all of the data behind the plan, making it impossible to analyze any impact.
Lawyers acting for the environmental organizations told the court that the government failed to share “risk tables,” or information about whether its policies could be implemented, with Parliament and others, meaning the plan couldn't be properly scrutinized.
“The courts have now told the U.K. government not once, but twice, that its climate strategy is not fit for purpose,” said Sam Hunter Jones, a lawyer for the group ClientEarth. “This judgment means the government must now take credible action to address the climate crisis with a plan that can actually be trusted to deliver and with numbers that can be relied on."
This presents a couple of questions.
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First: Why do you suppose that the plan as released was "vague and unquantified?" Could it be that no real analysis was done? Could it be that Britain can only implement policies that affect Britain, and which will have little effect on a global system that is 1) chaotic and 2) so vast, so complex and so active as to be impossible to fully understand?
Second: Why is the British government apparently reluctant to release the "risk tables?" Could it be that the tables show some data that contradicts the narrative, namely, that Britain can, on its own, take some meaningful action on a climate system that is vastly larger than the British Isles?
The British government has already had to back-peddle on some of its climate change goals. Smart money says they will be forced to do so again. And they seem to be making no effort to look into nuclear power, which actually is not only carbon-neutral but also offers higher energy density than any other available technology.
Even if we accept the claims of environmental activists about climate change and carbon emissions — I don't — any action taken by Britain is, candidly a spit in the ocean. That ocean also includes China and India, which along with several smaller nations, are building coal-fired power plants at an incredible pace.
Global operating coal capacity grew by 2% in 2023, with China driving two- thirds of new additions, and a small uptick was seen for the first time since 2019 in the rest of the world, according to Global Energy Monitor's annual survey of the global coal fleet.
Data in the Global Coal Plant Tracker show that 69.5 GW of coal power capacity was commissioned while 21.1 GW was retired in 2023, resulting in a net annual increase of 48.4 GW for the year and a global total capacity of 2,130 GW. This is the highest net increase in operating coal capacity since 2016.
It's an encouraging sign that this British High Court judge saw the BS in this plan and called it out, regardless of who brought the suit. Shining lights into dark corners is always a good thing, and if the British government is prodded to release all of the data and presumptions that went into their Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, it may prove to be embarrassing to His Majesty's government — and an interesting read to those of us who have been calling the BS out for some time now.
