If, last week, you weren't hiding in the shade or in a darkened room to avoid the heat, you may have noticed an interesting ruling from the High Court.
The Government’s landmark Net-Zero Strategy, which was first published last October in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, was ruled as adequate and unlawful, following a successful legal challenge brought by Good Law Project, Joanna Wheatley, Client Earth and Friends of the Earth.
As described in detail over on Edie.net:
In a judgment published on Monday (18 July), the High Court ruled that the Strategy is too vague, meaning that there were no assurances that targets listed under the Strategy, which aims to decarbonise the UK economy to net-zero by 2050, could be met.
Looks like the Government forgot the basics: SMART targets! Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
The UK’s net-zero ambition has been hampered by a lack of clarity, rushed or delayed framework announcements and, importantly, that focus on the climate has been derailed by the fallout from the pandemic and the Partygate scandals that gripped Whitehall.
In the current void, what can the business community do about it?
The answer is a lot. There’s always been a long-held misconception that businesses need policy in order to act. While policy helps build market certainty and pushes laggards into line, the truth is that the timeframe of a chief executive is much greater than the Cabinet at Whitehall. Businesses can set long and stretching targets much more efficiently than Government, because there’s less likely to be a shakeup.
Businesses can "deliver seismic market shifts by funnelling R&D and investments into green solutions, upskilling staff into greener roles and unifying their voice to demand that policy provides the relevant support."
And, absolutely essential, they can begin to reduce their own carbon emissions.
Confused about how to do this? Speak to one of the CarbonNow team today.