judgment

Oceana v Energy Secretary and another - judgment

Filing Year For Action

Oceana, a marine conservation organization, applied for judicial review of the award of 28 oil and gas offshore exploration licenses in June 2024 by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, acting through the North Sea Transition Authority ("NSTA"). They argue that the decision failed to assess downstream / scope 3 emissions and the impacts of the licenses on Marine Protected Areas ("MPAs").
The case was heard in March 2025.

The grounds of challenge were that the NSTA:
(1) Failed to consider the impact of oil and gas industry accidents (including oil spills and discharges) on MPAs and their conservation features.
(2) Failed to consider the ongoing impact of the climate crisis on the marine environments set to be impacted by these licenses, and failed to consider the full climate impact of the licensed activity, including scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions, such as from the use of the extracted oil and gas).
(3) Failed adequately to assess the cumulative impacts of the licensed activity on the relevant sites.
(4) Failed to pay due regard to the advice of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and Natural England in relation to the matters raised by several of the grounds above: these organizations had advised that they could not conclude that the drilling would have no adverse effect on the designated sites and that allowing the exploration in MPAs would make it impossible for the government to achieve marine protection targets.

The High Court found against the claimants on all grounds. It found as follows: (1) disagreed – while it was accepted that oil and gas activities in the UK continental shelf carried a risk of accidents, the appropriate assessments acknowledged the risk of accidents, but their focus was on the management of that risk. The court’s role was not to substitute its own judgement as to what a precautionary approach required, but whether the Secretary of State had a reasonable basis for judging their approach to be precautionary. The Court found there to be a reasonable basis given there was insufficient information at the time of the licences to meaningfully assess, manage and plan for the risk of accidents, and it was therefore appropriate to delay consideration of these accidents; (2) disagreed – while assessments needed to take into account that protected sites are under pressure from climate change, the Court found no misunderstanding of or failure to engage with the findings and conclusion of the scientific evidence presented. It was not possible to give specific consideration of the impact of climate change on the MPAs, given the absence of information as to how much climate change is affecting their qualifying features. The Court also rejected that the decision in Finch could be read across to the various regimes protecting habitats; (3) disagreed – the statutory regime created a multi-stage consent process whereby consent to undertake activities and development and production activities would equally require further consent. It is legitimate in this context to defer the assessment of effects until they are known with a sufficient certainty; and (4) disagreed – the Court was “quite satisfied” that the reasons given gave a sufficiently cogent explanation of the Secretary of State’s approach and disagreement with the JNCC.

Oceana v Energy Secretary and another

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Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

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Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

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Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

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The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

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This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

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Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

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A commitment to balance GHG emissions with removal by a certain point in time, effectively reducing the net emissions to zero

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

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Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

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Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Jobs that contribute to preserving or restoring the environment. We include jobs which require a high amount of green skills or which spend much of their time on green activities, as well as jobs transforming polluting industries.

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This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Oceana v Energy Secretary and another - judgment

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance