Climate Law Matters

In this episode, Matthew McFeeley, a partner at Richard Buxton Solicitors discusses the legal implications of the Government’s drive for green energy with Celia Reynolds, a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers specialising in public and environmental law. Matthew and Celia discuss the changes introduced by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, updates to the process for challenging DCOs, and the rec...

At the global level, it is estimated that aviation accounts for 2.4% of annual anthropogenic CO₂ emissions and 4% of anthropogenic global heating up to 2021. As the sector continues to grow, those impacts will increase, and by 2050, aviation could be responsible for around 22% of CO₂ emissions alone. In this episode, Steph David discusses the problem of emissions from aviation, how those emissions...

In the first episode of 2026, Ruth Chambers, Senior Fellow at Green Alliance returns to discuss the UK Government’s assessment of global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse with Flora Curtis, barrister at 39 Essex Chambers. Published in January following an initially unsuccessful freedom of information request made in late 2025, the report examines the global ecosystems most critical to the U...

In this special end-of-year episode, 39 Essex Chambers' barrister Ella Grodzinski and Anna Tranter of Irwin Mitchell look back at the key climate caselaw developments of the year. Costs & Aarhus protections:  R (Badger Trust and Wild Justice) v Natural England [2025] EWHC 2761 (Admin) Green Lane Association v Central Bedfordshire Council [2025] EWHC 2251 (Admin) Finch developments: Greenp...

39 Essex Chambers' barrister Christopher Moss discusses the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (“UK ETS”) with Dr Diana Casey, the Executive Director of Energy and Climate change at the Mineral Products Association, a board member of the Emissions Trading Group, and chair of the Emissions Trading System Policy group for the Emissions Trading Group. Dr Casey provides an overview of the UK ETS, its scope a...

39 Essex Chambers' barrister Celia Reynolds talks to Professor Paul Fennell, professor of clean energy at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London. His work encompasses the decarbonisation and re-thinking of industrial processes, including the production of iron and steel and cement manufacture. He also works in the broader field of industrial decarbonisation, including syne...

39 Essex Chambers' barrister Flora Curtis talks to Nikki Reisch, Director of the Climate and Energy Programme at the Center for International Environmental Law, and Lucy Maxwell, Co-Director of the Climate Litigation Network, about the ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change handed down on 23 July 2025.  Nikki discusses the background to the case and its origins in the work of Pacific Island s...

Tessa Khan is the Executive Director at Uplift, a climate action organisation that supports efforts to transition rapidly and fairly away from oil and gas production in the UK. In this episode, she discusses a number of different legal developments to facilitate that transition, including the landmark legal case relating to the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil fields, following Sarah Finch’s successful ca...

39 Essex Chambers' barrister Steph David talks with Sinead Murray, General Counsel of Ofgem, who explains the key and expanding role that Ofgem plays in driving the transition to a net zero future in the energy sector. She explains Ofgem’s role in administering various schemes to incentivise a transition to low carbon technology, and its role in regulating licensed gas and electricity suppliers, n...

Peter Carter discusses how businesses should be thinking about, and approaching, climate risk and building resilience into their business models. He explains the necessity of an holistic approach, considering not only the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but also approaching climate risks as a dynamic system to assess where the risks lie, such as to physical assets and supply chains, and how...

In this episode, Sarah Finch, behind the groundbreaking Supreme Court case in R (Finch) v Surrey County Council [2024] P.T.S.R. 988, talks about the immediate effects of the judgment for fossil fuel development elsewhere in the country before considering the wider impacts on other sectors. She then shares her experience in bringing a case like this and sets out what she sees as the greatest barrie...

On 20 June 2024, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in R (Finch) v Surrey County Council [2024] P.T.S.R. 988 in which the majority found that the grant of planning permission for oil production in Horse Hill, Surrey, was unlawful, because the environmental impact assessment had not assessed the downstream greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of the oil. There has been a significant...

On 3 May 2024, the UK’s plan to meet the Sixth Carbon Budget set under the Climate Change Act 2008 (‘CCA 2008’) was declared unlawful for the second time by the High Court J in R (Friends of the Earth & Oths) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2024] EWHC 995 (Admin). In this episode, junior counsel for Friends of the Earth, Catherine Dobson , of 39 Essex Chambers, sets out...

Ruth Chambers , Senior Fellow at Green Alliance , discusses the Office for Environmental Protection’s recent annual statutory report, published on 18 January 2023, and shares her views, more generally, on the role and effectiveness of the Environment Act 2021 in achieving its goals in relation to the natural environment, particularly those relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Ruth...

Dr Alex Lee delves further into the role of the precautionary principle in the context of climate modelling to assess resilience – essential in adapting to climate change. He considers the case study of landfill sites and caps; and how their vulnerability to climate change should be analysed. Alex then explains how the precautionary principle can be an effective tool before considering more genera...

Climate modelling is growing in importance in disputes, such as investor state disputes concerned with climate attribution. Dr Alex Lee , Chartered Geologist and Scientist, head of the environmental and climate change team at HKA , explains how climate modelling works and sets out his experience involving, for example, nuclear waste, power stations in coastal locations, and groundwater contaminati...

The Lifescape Project is concerned with creating a world rich in wild landscapes through a multi-disciplinary approach.  Elsie Blackshaw-Crosby , Managing Lawyer at the charity, discusses her journey and how she ended up working with the project before setting out, in more detail, how the charity uses the law to achieve its objectives. Elsie also discusses the charity’s recently issued judici...

Whilst recognising the importance of renewable energy sources, Paul Redington, regional major loss property claims manager at Zurich, emphasises the need to be aware of the risks associated with sustainable energy source; and consider how they should be managed and mitigated. In this episode, Paul focuses on the rise in electrical fires from solar panels in both residential and commercial settings...

Whilst there has been a shift in the UK to less meat and dairy consumption, globally the amount consumed is only likely increase. A significant proportion of animal feed is soya, which is imported from South America. Rachel O’Connor explains why using insect protein as animal feed makes sense from a land use, climate change, biodiversity and food system perspective.  She sets out the regulato...

In the last episode, David Rouch provided an overview of a report that he co-authored, entitled “A Legal Framework For Impact: Sustainability Impact in Investor Decision-making” – a report commissioned by UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, Principles for Responsible Investment and The Generation Foundation and published by Freshfields. In this part, he discusses the impact of the report...

David Rouch is a financial services partner at Freshfields with expertise in sustainable investing. He is the author of the “Social Licence For Financial Markets: Reaching For The End And Why It Counts” (Palgrave Macmillan 2020), as well as the co-author of “A Legal Framework For Impact: Sustainability Impact in Investor Decision-making” – a report commissioned by UN Environment Programme Finance...

Kate Tandy is the Head of Litigation and Casework at the Office for Environmental Protection (“OEP”). In this episode, Kate explains what the OEP is and how it prioritises its work, particularly given the multiple environmental crises from climate change, to poor air quality, to the biodiversity crisis. She discusses the OEP’s intervention in the Supreme Court of Finch. Kate also shares her though...

Dr McClean continues her interview with Steph David. In this episode, Dr McClean discusses deep geothermal energy and how it is regulated, including both the environmental and financial risks associated with this form of energy. She considers the extent to which the Government currently relies on geothermal energy in its Energy Security Plan; and provides her views as to the key legal developments...

Dr McClean is an expert in the regulation of geothermal energy. She is a lecturer at the University of Newcastle and a researcher on a geothermal energy heating project. In this episode, she shares her views on the potential of geothermal energy in the UK as a reliable source of renewable energy, as well as explaining how shallow geothermal energy is currently regulated and how it could be regulat...

Professor Sir Dieter Helm is a Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. From 2012 to 2020, he was the Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital. He provides expert advice to UK and European governments, regulators and companies across energy and cli...