High Court ruling on government’s climate adaptation plans due Friday 25 October

Friends of the Earth spokespeople will be outside the High Court from 10am for interview and picture opportunity.

• A Friends of the Earth legal briefing on the legal challenge is here. (An updated briefing will be available immediately after the judgment is published.)
• Images of Friends of the Earth and co-claimants outside the High Court hearing in July can be downloaded here. Additional photos/ footage of the co-claimants available [1].

A High Court ruling on whether the government’s climate adaptation plans are lawful is due to be handed down at 10am on Friday 25 October 2025.

The judgment follows legal challenges [2] by Friends of the Earth and two co-claimants – Doug Paulley, a disability rights activist, and Kevin Jordan, who lost his home to coastal erosion – who argued that the government’s plans for adapting to the existing and predicted impacts of climate change, known as the National Adaptation Programme 3 (NAP 3), are insufficient and unlawful.

There will be a picture opportunity outside the High Court at 10am, once the judgment – which will be given online – has been made. Friends of the Earth spokespeople will be available for interview outside the court.  Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan will be available for interview remotely.

Background:

Earlier this year, Friends of the Earth and the two co-claimants took legal action over the government’s failure to produce a national plan that lawfully protects people, property and infrastructure from the foreseeable impacts of the accelerating climate crisis.

The co-claimants, whose lives have already been impacted by climate change, are:

• Disability activist Doug Paulley, who has a number of health conditions which are being exacerbated by searing summer temperatures. He is concerned that the current NAP fails to consider the needs of disabled people – particularly in places such as care homes – putting him and others at risk.
• Kevin Jordan, who is also disabled, and was made homeless shortly before last Christmas, after his home in Hemsby, Norfolk was demolished because it was in danger of falling into the sea. Coastal erosion fuelled by rising sea levels and severe storms caused by climate change, had left it perilously close to the cliff edge.

  They argue that that the current National Adaptation Programme (NAP), introduced by the previous government in July 2023, is inadequate, with marginalised groups – such as older and disabled people – and those living in areas most exposed to rising global temperatures, being disproportionately affected by the impacts of extreme weather and deficient adaptation plans.

The government’s own advisors, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), have also been critical of the government’s climate adaptation plans, warning that the current programme “falls far short of what is required” [3].

Friends of the Earth and the co-claimants are calling for a new, robust and comprehensive adaptation programme that better protects people and communities from the challenges they face due to global heating.