Impact Assessment Directive : The UK Supreme Court rules on the inclusion of emissions associated with the construction of fossil fuel projects
On the 20th of June 2024 the UK Supreme Court ruled that not only direct emissions associated with building a project must be taken into account, but combustion emissions must be taken into account as well when allowing new fossil fuel projects.
Surrey’s County Council granted permission in 2019 to the company Horse Dill Developments Limited to expand their existing crude oil site with four new wells. In order to be granted this permission, the company provided an assessment of the direct green house gases associated with the building of the project. However, they did not assess the emissions that would be produced by the final product, burning the drilled up oil.
Climate activist Sarah Fincher took this case to the High Court of Justice with the legal question of whether the end-use greenhouse gasses must be included in permission granting to companies, or that the direct emissions suffice. The claimant argues that the granted permission breached the 92/2011/EU Directive on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment by determining that consumption-based emissions could be excluded while assessing such expansion because the emissions produced by the final product must be included.
The Supreme Court ruled upon this important question on the 20th of June 2024. It ruled that the impacts of using the fossil fuel produced in these projects must be assessed before a permission can be granted. The Directive mentions « identifie, décrit et évalue de manière appropriée les incidences directes et indirectes d’un projet », and the court ruled that the use of those fossil fuels is part of those effects. The causality between the extraction of the oil and its later combustion cannot be denied.
As there are more cases pending in the United Kingdom regarding this legal question (such as against the new coalmine in Whitehaven and new oil and gas fields in the North Sea), this Supreme Court decision strengthens the cases induced by other climate activists.
To know more read :
The judgment : https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2022-0064-judgment.pdf
The press release : https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2022-0064-press-summary.pdf
Manon Quinet, student at U Antwerpen
Associated areas of specialisation: Energy, Environment, Proprety and urban planning