Legal challenge over climate adaptation programme: Tuesday 18 June 2024

The government is being taken to court on Tuesday 18 June over its climate adaptation plan.

Friends of the Earth and two co-claimants say that the National Adaptation Programme breaches the Climate Change Act 2008 and unlawfully fails to protect people, property and infrastructure from the foreseeable impacts of climate change. A two-day hearing (18-19 June) will take place at the High Court

The two co-claimants whose lives are already severely impacted by the climate crisis are:

Disability activist Doug Paulley who has a number of health conditions which are being exacerbated by searing summer temperatures, causing not just great distress and discomfort, but also putting him at increased risk of serious harm.
Kevin Jordan who was made homeless shortly before Christmas 2023, when his house in Hemsby, Norfolk was demolished after coastal erosion fuelled by sea level rise and severe storms put it in acute danger of falling into the sea.

Friends of the Earth and the co-claimants are particularly concerned that people living in vulnerable situations – such as older and disabled people – and those living in areas most at risk from climate change, are disproportionately affected by the government’s failure to produce a credible plan to protect them from the climate crisis.