Possible v. Secretary of State for Transport; and GALBA v. SST (challenges to government’s ‘Jet Zero strategy’ for decarbonising aviation)

In October 2022, climate charity Possible as well as Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) filed separate claims for judicial review in the High Court for England and Wales against the Secretary of State for Transport (SoS Transport), challenging the UK government’s “Jet Zero” strategy. The “Jet Zero” strategy is the UK’s strategy to decarbonise the aviation sector to achieve net zero in aviation by 2050. The strategy is alleged to: - breach the UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 since the SoS Transport did not ensure that it would enable the UK’s carbon budgets to be met, which would result in a failure to deliver net zero - breach public law principles, because the SoS Transport a) departed from advice given by the Climate Change Committee (the UK’s statutory advisory body on climate change) on reducing demand without giving lawful reasons, b) did not lawfully consult on the strategy, c) failed to take into account emissions other than CO2 caused by flights. GALBA makes an additional argument on the effects of the strategy on local planning applications for airports. It was announced in March 2023 that the two cases will proceed to a joint hearing. Following the joint hearing on 1-4 April 2025, the High Court dismissed the judicial review challenging the UK’s Jet Zero Strategy regarding aviation. The hearing involved three separate claims brought by the two claimants, GALBA and Possible. The court determined that the Jet Zero Strategy was intended to focus on achieving net zero aviation by 2050, not on directly restricting aviation demand as suggested by the Climate Change Committee. The judge stated that “it may have been preferable to have included a few lines in the consultation document” explaining why demand management was not included, but the court ruled that this was not a sufficient basis for ruling the entire consultation to be unlawful.