A large new gas-fired power
plant has been ruled legal
by the UK high court.
A spokesperson for
the Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy
said:
“We welcome the high court’s
ruling issued today which supports
the secretary of state’s decision
to grant consent for the Drax
re-powering project.
We are going further and faster
than any other major economy
in taking action on climate change.
As we transition to net zero
emissions in 2050, natural gas
can provide a reliable source
of energy while our world class
renewables sector continues
to grow, supported by record
levels of investment.”
A legal challenge
was brought
after ministers
overruled
climate change
objections from
planning authorities.
It appears likely
this judgement
will be appealed
Britain’s power grid
cannot operate without
the back up of reliable
sources of generation,
such this CCGT plant.
The plany is being developed
by Drax in North Yorkshire,
and would be the biggest
gas power station in Europe,.
It could eventually account for
75% of the UK’s power sector
CO2 emissions when fully
operational, according to lawyers
for ClientEarth, which brought
the judicial review.
The government’s actions
to tackle the climate "emergency"
are under particular scrutiny
at the moment as the UK
will host a UN climate summit
in early 2021.
For the summit to be successful,
experts say, the host nation
needs to take a leadership role
at home.
Sam Hunter Jones,
a lawyer at ClientEarth,
said:
“We’re very dissatisfied
by today’s judgment,
rejecting our arguments
against the lawfulness
of the government’s decision
and of its approach to assessing t
he project’s carbon lock-in risk.
We will consider an appeal.”
A Drax spokeswoman said:
“Drax power station plays a vital role in the UK’s energy system, generating reliable, flexible electricity for millions of homes and businesses. The development of new high-efficiency gas power would support the UK’s decarbonising energy system.”
She said the company’s
ambition was to remove,
not add, carbon to the
atmosphere by 2030.
It would do this by burning
wood or plants and then
capturing and storing
the CO2 emissions.
The gas plant is capable
of having carbon capture
technology fitted in the
future, the company says.
John Sauven, the head of
Greenpeace UK, said:
“Building new
gas-fired power
stations when
the UK has a
net zero carbon target
is hardly showing
climate leadership.
It also makes little
economic sense.
The costs are already
higher than for renewable
options like wind and solar.
Investing money to increase
pollution may still be legal
but it’s no longer defensible.”
ClientEarth argued that
the combination of the
project’s large scale,
level of emissions and
long operating life
made it a significant
threat to the UK’s
carbon targets.
The group has previously
inflicted three defeats
on ministers over their
failure to tackle air pollution.
The planning inspectorate
concluded that wind and solar
power would cut energy bills
for consumers, while the
proposed gas plant would not.
This year there have been
a series of legal actions
against polluting infrastructure
projects on climate grounds.
In April, Transport Action
Network launched a legal
challenge to try to prevent
billions of pounds of
taxpayers’ money being
spent on a huge
road-building program,
which it said breached
the UK’s legal commitments
to tackle the climate "crisis"
and air pollution.
In February the court of appeals
ruled that plans for a third runway
at Heathrow airport were illegal
because ministers did not
adequately take into account
the government’s climate
commitments.
That was the first major ruling
in the world to be based on
the 2015 Paris climate change
agreement.