UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Ruth Knox and Julian Wolfgramm-King, Paul Hastings LLP
not assessing the impact of GHG emissions from the burning of mined coal (applying the Finch case). By contrast, in R ( on the application of Greenpeace Ltd ) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2023] EWHC 2608 (Admin), the High Court refused applications for judicial review of a decision by DESNZ to launch a new North Sea oil and gas licensing round on the basis that UK Government did not need to take into account Scope 3 GHG emissions when preparing the strategic environmental assess - ment of its Offshore Energy Plan. In the past year, the decision of Finch has been fur- ther distinguished through subsequent developments in case law. Namely, in R ( LADACAN ) v SST and Anor [2025] EWHC 3206 (Admin), the High Court dis - missed the application for judicial review of Secretary of State’s decision to grant a Development Consent Order for the expansion of London Luton Airport on the basis that “the evaluation of the significance of an estimated amount of GHG emissions and its accepta - bility is a matter of fact and judgment for the decision- maker. He or she may decide to choose benchmarks to help in arriving at that judgment. But that choice too is a matter of judgment for them”. Such evaluation can be challenged on the basis of Wednesbury unreasona- bleness, which was not pursued in this case. See 2.6 Climate Litigation . Backlash Reform UK, a right-wing populist political party led by Nigel Farage, won 1,400 new councillor seats in the May 2026 local elections. This has resulted in widespread changes to the pension committees of some of the largest local government pension funds in the UK. Reform has challenged investment strate - gies based on the net zero agenda and many analysts expect changes to the investment mandates for pen - sion schemes funded by councils now run by Reform. At the time of publication, commentators have noted a shift in Reform’s position, framed increasingly around directing resources toward adaptation and resilience measures rather than opposing net zero outright. Reform has cited the UK’s small share of global emis - sions as one reason for this shift, while commentators separately note that the reframing may reflect contin -
ued British public acceptance of climate science even as support for net zero policies has softened. In July 2026, Andy Burnham was voted in by Labour MPs as the UK’s new Prime Minister, and while Mr Burnham has demonstrated a commitment to policies underpinned by net zero, he has expressed “some - thing of an open mind” with respect to granting new exploration and production licences for the North Seas. This is widely acknowledged as a pragmatic response to Reform’s deregulatory agenda on net zero, which the GMB union considers instrumental in Reform’s success in the May elections amongst vot - ing workers. At the time of writing, it is anticipated by commentators that approval for the exploration and production from the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields are likely to gain approval from a Burnham administration. 2.4 Key Policy/Regulatory Authorities The key policy and administrative authorities respon - sible for climate change policy development are: • Climate Change Committee (including the Adapta - tion Sub-Committee); • The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ); • Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA); • Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS); • HM Treasury; • The Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons; • Ofgem; and • Transition Finance Council. By virtue of its mandate under the Climate Change Act 2008, the Climate Change Committee holds a high lev - el of influence over UK government on the evolution of climate change policy in the UK. DESNZ holds a sig - nificantly larger policy portfolio compared to DEFRA on climate change policy development. BEIS oversees the climate-related financial disclosure regulations applicable to companies and limited liability partner - ships enacted pursuant to the Companies (Strategic Report) (Climate-related Financial Disclosure) Regula - tions 2022 and the Limited Liability Partnerships (Cli -
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