It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, May 03, 2024
Pro-Palestine student protests spread to Japan
May 3, 2024
People perform as they gather to stage a pro-Palestinian demonstration called ”A voice for Palestinians’ at Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan on April 13, 2024 [Ahmet Furkan Mercan/Anadolu via Getty Images]
Pro-Palestine student demonstrations spread to Japan on Friday, with a protest held at Waseda University in Tokyo against Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.
Footage on social media shows dozens of students gathering in support of Palestinians, chanting “Free Palestine, free Palestine, and Palestine will be free.”
They were also carrying banners and placards with slogans against Israel and “Free Palestine, Save Gaza.”
Students and activists also set up encampments at major universities in Australia, including in Sydney, as demands for divestment from Israel grow louder.
The pro-Palestine demonstrations on Australian campuses came as the US saw more than 150 Gaza solidarity encampments propped up throughout the country.
More than 2,000 people, including students, have been arrested by US authorities during the pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Student protests have been held in Canada and France, as well.
The student demonstrations began on 17 April at Columbia University to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza, where more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and 77,700 injured since a 7 October incursion by Hamas.
The protests have served as a flashpoint for the wider movement to protest Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 34,622 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,867 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85 per cent of the Territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
U of T
Pro-Palestinian students set up camp at varsity in Canada
TORONTO: Pro-Palestine protesters breached a fenced area and set up an encampment at the University of Toronto, in the early hours of Thursday. They vowed to stay there until the university divests from companies with military links to Israel and cuts ties with certain Israeli universities.
The protesters moved in at around 4am and set up a few dozen tents on the lawn at the university’s King’s College Circle. They managed to navigate around the fencing that the university had erected to prevent an encampment.
Meanwhile, police vehicles arrived at the scene but no clashes have been reported, as of yet.
Student leaders say protesters decided to start the encampment after their occupation of the university president’s office did not yield any substantive results.
They argue that if the university has divested from South African apartheid, and from fossil fuels, then why does it refrain from doing the same in the case of Palestine.
The university issued a statement on Friday, saying protest is allowed so long as no law and/or rules are violated in the process.
The statement read that while the university “respects the rights of members of our community to assemble and protest within the limits of the law and U of T policies”, the activity should not interfere with the ability of students and faculty to learn, teach, research and work on the campuses.
“Those who contravene university policy or the law risk the consequences, set out in various laws and policies such as the Code of Student Conduct, which could include suspension” the statement said.
The university also distributed leaflets to protesters on Thursday morning. The leaflets set out expectations for peaceful protest, with no disruption to scheduled university activities and no structure of any sort.
Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024
Democratic lawmakers tell Biden evidence shows Israel is restricting Gaza aid
A worker unloads humanitarian aid near the Erez Crossing point in northern Gaza on May 1. PHOTO: Reuters
MAY 03, 2024
WASHINGTON — Scores of lawmakers from US President Joe Biden's Democratic Party told him on May 4 that they believe there is sufficient evidence to show that Israel has violated US law by restricting humanitarian aid flows into war-stricken Gaza.
A letter to Biden signed by 86 House of Representatives Democrats said Israel's aid restrictions "call into question" its assurances that it was complying with a US Foreign Assistance Act provision requiring recipients of US-funded arms to uphold international humanitarian law and allow free flows of US assistance.
Such written assurances were mandated by a national security memorandum that Biden issued in February after Democratic lawmakers began questioning if Israel was upholding international law in its Gaza operations.
The lawmakers said the Israeli government had resisted repeated US requests to open enough sea and land routes for aid to Gaza, and cited reports that it failed to allow in enough food to avert famine, enforced "arbitrary restrictions" on aid and imposed an inspection system that impeded supplies.
"We expect the administration to ensure (Israel's) compliance with existing law and to take all conceivable steps to prevent further humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza," the lawmakers wrote.
Biden's memorandum requires that Secretary of State Antony Blinken report to Congress by May 8 on whether he finds credible Israel's assurances that its use of US arms adheres to international law.
At least four State Department bureaus advised Blinken last month that they found Israel's assurances "neither credible nor reliable".
If Israel's assurances are questioned, Biden would have the option to "remediate" the situation through actions ranging from seeking fresh assurances to suspending US arms transfers, according to the memorandum. UN says famine advancing in Gaza
Israel denies violating international law and limiting aid in its war against Gaza's ruling Hamas militants, which was triggered by their Oct 7 onslaught into Israel in which they killed more than 1,200 people and seized more than 200 hostages.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in nearly seven months of fighting, according to Gaza's health ministry, which has devastated the coastal enclave and left most of the population of 2.3 million displaced amid dire food and water shortages.
UN World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain told NBC News that there was now "full-blown famine" in northern Gaza.
"There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it's moving its way south. And so what we're asking for and what we've continually asked for is a ceasefire and the ability to have unfettered access," said McCain, the widow of the late Senator John McCain.
US officials say that while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has taken steps that have boosted aid deliveries, the amounts remain insufficient.
The lawmakers also condemned Hamas' Oct 7 attack in their letter, endorsed Israel's right to exist and expressed support for US efforts to broker a ceasefire and a second hostage release.
Israel, they noted, recently opened more aid routes and crossing points into Gaza that have allowed in more aid trucks.
But the lawmakers expressed "serious concerns" over Israel's conduct of the war "as it pertains to the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid".
They urged Biden "to make clear" to Netanyahu "that so long as Israel restricts, directly or indirectly" aid to Gaza, "the Israeli government is risking its eligibility for further offensive security assistance from the US".
Labour’s Gaza stance leads to voter backlash in English council elections
03 May 2024
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper. Photo Maja Smiejkowska/PA Wire
A backlash over Labour’s stance on Gaza has led to losses on local councils across England, amid otherwise positive local elections results.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, was among the senior party figures who conceded Labour’s approach to the conflict in the Middle East had led to the losses, but said it would work to “earn votes back in future”.
The party failed to regain control of Oxford after a string of prominent defections over its messaging on the Gaza crisis, and in a similar blow, lost control of Oldham Council in Greater Manchester to independents.
Labour also lost council seats to independents in Blackburn with Darwen and Bradford, while George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain gained from it in Manchester and Rochdale.
‘Strong feelings’
Shadow home secretary Ms Cooper told BBC News: “We do strongly recognise there are areas where we have had independent candidates who have been particularly strongly campaigning on Gaza and where there is really strong feeling about this issue, because tens of thousands of people have been killed.
“It is just devastating to see what is happening, which is why we need an immediate ceasefire and for hostages to be released and why we hope some progress will be made in the negotiations.
“We do recognise the strength of feeling that there is and of course we will continue to work just as we do in every area across the country to earn votes back in future.”
Labour failed to win back control of Oxford after nine councillors defected to independent last year over Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza.
The party lost a further two seats to the Greens on Friday, and now have 20 of the 48 councillors, with 11 independents, nine Lib Dems and eight Greens.
It retained control of Blackburn with Darwen, but lost four seats, while the Conservatives lost two and independents were up four.
Labour retained control of Bradford council, but lost four seats, with independents gaining four, Greens gaining two and Conservatives losing two seats.
Palestine
In Oldham, independent candidates, several of whom explicitly campaigned in support of Palestine, gained five seats on Thursday, pushing the council into no overall control.
Labour’s majority on Oldham Council, which it has controlled since 2011, had already been whittled down to just one ahead of Thursday’s elections thanks to two defections last month.
It remains the largest party on Oldham Council with 27 out of 60 seats, while the number of independent councillors has risen to 16.
There are also nine Liberal Democrats and eight Conservatives, meaning a coalition of opposition parties could topple the Labour administration.
In Manchester, Labour deputy leader of the council Luthfur Rahman lost his seat to Shahbaz Sarwar of Mr Galloway’s Workers Party.
The party claimed the seat in the Longsight ward with 2,444 votes to Labour’s 2,259 votes.
Speaking at the Manchester count, Mr Galloway proclaimed a “Sarwar family victory” and signalled this was related to Gaza.
“It’s a story of a group of people who were faithful to the Palestinian cause from the first to the last,” Mr Galloway said.
The Workers Party also won its first two council seats in Rochdale, where Mr Galloway won a by-election in March.
Labour retained control of the council with 44 seats, after losing two to the Workers Party of Britain, with the Conservatives on nine, Lib Dems on three and two independents.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had earlier said he was “concerned wherever we lose votes”, but that Labour was picking up seats where it needed to.
His national campaign co-ordinator, Pat McFadden, acknowledged the crisis in Gaza had been “a factor in some places”, saying that with “so many innocent people being killed I’m not surprised people have strong feelings about that”.
But Oldham Council leader Labour’s Arooj Shah has denied the party’s loss of control was because of the Gaza crisis, blaming the Tories in Westminster for “13 years of austerity”.
Labour MP Clive Betts said there was “no doubt at all about it” that the party had lost votes as a result of its stance on Gaza.
The Sheffield South East MP added: “A lot of that was mistaken, on the belief that we hadn’t changed our position on Gaza from a few months ago, but once people take a view that we have got it wrong, it is very difficult to change their minds.”
Elsewhere, Labour swept to victory in several new regional mayoralties, gained control of eight councils, and won nine police and crime commissioner posts from the Conservatives.
Labour’s Gaza stance leads to voter backlash in English councils
Losses in Oxford, Oldham, Manchester and Rochdale appeared to signal discontent among voters with Labour’s approach to the conflict.
A backlash over Labour’s stance on Gaza has led to losses on local councils across England, amid otherwise positive local elections results.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, was among the senior party figures who conceded Labour’s approach to the conflict in the Middle East had led to the losses, but said it would work to “earn votes back in future”.
The party failed to regain control of Oxford after a string of prominent defections over its messaging on the Gaza crisis, and in a similar blow, lost control of Oldham Council in Greater Manchester to independents.
Labour also lost council seats to independents in Blackburn with Darwen and Bradford, while George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain gained from it in Manchester and Rochdale
Workers Party of Britain leader George Galloway (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Shadow home secretary Ms Cooper told BBC News: “We do strongly recognise there are areas where we have had independent candidates who have been particularly strongly campaigning on Gaza and where there is really strong feeling about this issue, because tens of thousands of people have been killed.
“It is just devastating to see what is happening, which is why we need an immediate ceasefire and for hostages to be released and why we hope some progress will be made in the negotiations.
“We do recognise the strength of feeling that there is and of course we will continue to work just as we do in every area across the country to earn votes back in future.”
Labour failed to win back control of Oxford after nine councillors defected to independent last year over Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza.
The party lost a further two seats to the Greens on Friday, and now have 20 of the 48 councillors, with 11 independents, nine Lib Dems and eight Greens
It retained control of Blackburn with Darwen, but lost four seats, while the Conservatives lost two and independents were up four.
(PA Graphics)
Labour retained control of Bradford council, but lost four seats, with independents gaining four, Greens gaining two and Conservatives losing two seats.
In Oldham, independent candidates, several of whom explicitly campaigned in support of Palestine, gained five seats on Thursday, pushing the council into no overall control.
Labour’s majority on Oldham Council, which it has controlled since 2011, had already been whittled down to just one ahead of Thursday’s elections thanks to two defections last month.
It remains the largest party on Oldham Council with 27 out of 60 seats, while the number of independent councillors has risen to 16.
There are also nine Liberal Democrats and eight Conservatives, meaning a coalition of opposition parties could topple the Labour administration.
In Manchester, Labour deputy leader of the council Luthfur Rahman lost his seat to Shahbaz Sarwar of Mr Galloway’s Workers Party.
The party claimed the seat in the Longsight ward with 2,444 votes to Labour’s 2,259 votes.
Speaking at the Manchester count, Mr Galloway proclaimed a “Sarwar family victory” and signalled this was related to Gaza.
“It’s a story of a group of people who were faithful to the Palestinian cause from the first to the last,” Mr Galloway said.
The Workers Party also won its first two council seats in Rochdale, where Mr Galloway won a by-election in March.
Labour retained control of the council with 44 seats, after losing two to the Workers Party of Britain, with the Conservatives on nine, Lib Dems on three and two independents.
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had earlier said he was “concerned wherever we lose votes”, but that Labour was picking up seats where it needed to.
His national campaign co-ordinator, Pat McFadden, acknowledged the crisis in Gaza had been “a factor in some places”, saying that with “so many innocent people being killed I’m not surprised people have strong feelings about that”.
But Oldham Council leader Labour’s Arooj Shah has denied the party’s loss of control was because of the Gaza crisis, blaming the Tories in Westminster for “13 years of austerity”.
Labour MP Clive Betts said there was “no doubt at all about it” that the party had lost votes as a result of its stance on Gaza.
The Sheffield South East MP added: “A lot of that was mistaken, on the belief that we hadn’t changed our position on Gaza from a few months ago, but once people take a view that we have got it wrong, it is very difficult to change their minds.”
Elsewhere, Labour swept to victory in several new regional mayoralties, gained control of eight councils, and won nine police and crime commissioner posts from the Conservatives.
MADRID: Spain’s left leaning incumbent government stated on Friday it plans on scrapping a national prize for bullfighting. The move has infuriated aficionados of the controversial spectacle but was welcomed with open arms by animal rights groups.
“A growing majority” of Spaniards are deeply concerned about animal welfare, so “we did not believe it is appropriate to maintain an award that rewards a form of animal abuse” stated the Minsister for Culture, Ernest Urtasun. Urtasun is associated with the hard-left political party ‘Sumar’, who are currently Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s junior coalition partners.
“I think they understand even less that these forms of animal torture are rewarded with medals that come with monetary prizes using public money” he added, during an interview with a private television channel, La Sexta.
The annual prize for bullfighting came to be in 2011, under a previous left-leaning government. The prize was first awarded in 2013 and grants 30,000 euros ($32,000) to winners.
Top matadors such as Enrique Ponce and Julian Lopez, known as “El Juli”, have secured the prize in the past.
Bullfighting retains an ardent following in certain circles of Spanish civic life and leading matadors are often treated as celebrities.
However, the practice’s mass appeal has slowly begun to fade, with polls showing a rising level of disinterest across the country, especially among the younger lot.
Spanish bullfighter Manuel Escribano at a festival held in April. Photo: AFP
Spain's left-wing government said on Friday it would scrap a national prize for bullfighting, a move which angered supporters of the controversial spectacle but was welcomed by animal rights groups.
"A growing majority" of Spaniards are concerned about animal welfare, so "we did not believe it is appropriate to maintain an award that rewards a form of animal abuse", said Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, who belongs to hard-left party Sumar, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's junior coalition partners.
"I think they understand even less that these forms of animal torture are rewarded with medals that come with monetary prizes using public money," he added during an interview with private television La Sexta.
The annual prize, which was created in 2011 under a previous Socialist government and was first awarded in 2013, grants €30,000 to winners.
Top matadors such as Enrique Ponce and Julian Lopez, known as "El Juli", have won the prize in the past.
Declining interest in tradition
Bullfighting retains a passionate following in some circles in Spain and leading matadors are treated as celebrities.
But the practice's mass appeal has faded and polls show a rising disinterest across the country, especially among the young.
Only 1.9 per cent of Spain's population attended a bullfight during the 2021-22 season, down from 8.0 per cent in 2018-19, according to a survey of leisure habits carried out by the culture ministry.
In recent years bullfighting has become a key issue in Spain's culture wars, pitting left-wing parties against conservatives who argue it is an integral part of the country's identity. Opposition vows to return prize
Spain's main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) swiftly promised to reinstate the prize if it returns to power.
PP spokesman Borja Semper accused the government of being "obsessed with sticking its finger in the eye of those who do not think" as it does, while the party's spokesman in parliament, Miguel Tellado, said bullfighting was "part of our culture, of our traditions".
Several regional governments, including one run by the Socialists in Castilla-La Mancha where bullfighting is popular, said they would create their own bullfighting prizes to replace the one being scrapped.
The Fundacion del Toro de Lidia, an NGO that promotes bullfighting in Spain, accused Urtasun of carrying out his duties in a discriminatory way against bullfighting.
"A culture minister cannot exercise his powers based on his personal preferences, he has the obligation to promote and encourage all cultural manifestations, among which is bullfighting," it said in a statement. Activists want ban to go further
But animal rights groups welcomed the government's decision.
Animal rights party PACMA called the measure a "positive step" and urged the government to go further with the "total abolition" of all forms of public support for bullfighting.
"We consider it to be a form of legalised animal abuse and cannot be justified under any circumstances, let alone encouraged through any kind of economic or social incentive," it said in a statement.
"This measure marks a milestone in the fight against bullfighting, a controversial practice that has for years generated debate," animal rights group AnimaNaturalis said.
Some 44.1 per cent of Spaniards were in favour of prohibiting bullfighting, according to a 2021 survey for polling company Electomania, while 34.7 per cent backed the tradition and 21.2 per cent said they had no opinion on the matter.
Spain's Canary Islands banned bullfighting in 1991. The northeastern region of Catalonia followed suit in 2010 but this ban was overturned by Spain's constitutional court six years later.
Bullfighting also takes place in Portugal and southern France, as well as in Spain's former colonies in Latin America where opposition to the practice is growing too.
To live beyond seventy is to be called in Chinese ‘ancient-rare’, because of the Chinese line that ‘it is rare for man to live over seventy since the ancient times’.
Which invariably brings to mind that well-worn line in The Analects:
At seventy, I follow my heart’s desire without crossing the line.
Although, even in one’s seventieth year, ‘the line’ is not necessarily as fixed as some might believe. Anyway, as Cicero observed:
Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end?
ISIS Carries Out Deadly Attacks on Pro-government Forces in East Syria An aerial picture shows farmers harvesting strawberries in a field in Bidama village in Syria's opposition-held northwestern Idlib province on April 26, 2024.
Suspected members of ISIS attacked three posts for Syrian government forces and pro-government gunmen early Friday killing at least 13, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media reported.
The attack wounded others who were taken to hospitals in the central province of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said 15 were killed in the attacks on three posts near the central town of Sukhna and blamed ISIS. The conflicting casualty counts could not immediately be reconciled. Pro-government media outlets said 13 soldiers and pro-government gunmen were killed in the attacks and that ISIS gunmen were behind it. They gave no further details.
Local sources later said that the death toll rose to 17.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but the area was once a stronghold of the extremist group that was officially defeated in Syria in March 2019. However, ISIS sleeper cells have been blamed for deadly attacks against both Syrian government forces and against members of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria.
Tunisian Decree 54 on ‘false news’ stifles dissent: rights groups
Tunisian journalists and opposition figures have voiced alarm about a surge of prosecutions since President Kais Saied issued a decree outlawing what authorities deem to be “false news”.
Rights groups and lawyers say the measure stifles dissent in the North African country that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring protests and for years after was considered a regional beacon of free speech.
Decree 54 mandates five-year prison terms to punish the use of communications networks to “produce, spread, disseminate… false news” or to “slander others, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them”.
Signed by President Saied in September 2022, the decree also mandates 10-year prison sentences “if the targeted person is a public official”.
The International Commission of Jurists has charged that the decree “enables the authorities to exert an unwarranted control over what people say, including politicians, journalists and human rights defenders — through the use of surveillance and criminal sanctions”.
Since the decree came into force, more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures have been prosecuted under it, said Zied Dabbar, head of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists.
Although the government presented it as a measure to combat cyber crime, he said, the “decree-law has never been applied to cyber attacks”.
– ‘Silencing unwanted voices’ –
Popular radio host Haythem Mekki charged that the decree is aimed at “silencing unwanted voices… which explains the many prosecutions against people who merely criticised the authorities”.
Mekki himself is under a Decree 54 investigation over a post on social media platform X decrying poor conditions at a public hospital morgue in the coastal city of Sfax.
The radio presenter recalled that in years past, Tunisians laughed at political satire on television, but today “we hardly dare criticise the president any more or make satire about him”.
Free expression, considered the main gain of Tunisia’s 2011 popular revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has come under threat in recent years.
Saied, a former law professor, has ruled by decree since orchestrating a sweeping power grab in July 2021.
The president has insisted that “freedoms are guaranteed” in the country of 12 million.
But the New York-based group Human Rights Watch has also charged that Tunisian authorities have used Decree 54 “to stifle and intimidate a wide range of critics”.
The government is also “using other laws to detain some of Saied’s most serious political adversaries on dubious conspiracy charges”, HRW said.
Tunisia saw a flurry of arrests in February 2023 as around 40 critics of Saied faced charges of “conspiracy against the state”, an offence separate from Decree 54 that is handled by an anti-terrorism court.
– ‘Instrument to muzzle speech’ –
Sadok Jammami, an information sciences professor in Tunis, told AFP that Decree 54 “is not at all a response to disinformation or fake news since it particularly targets public and political figures”.
“The current climate discourages media professionals and creates an atmosphere of fear (and) censorship.”
Hamza Belloumi, a TV reporter who investigates corruption, said ever fewer people were willing to appear on his show.
“People fear speaking out so as not to suffer the wrath of Decree 54,” he said.
Interviewees “don’t speak at all or they demand to remain anonymous”.
He added that, even if the decree may have been well-intentioned, “its use is bad. It has become an instrument to muzzle speech.”
Some still hope that the law will be amended or repealed as Tunisia readies for presidential elections to be held this autumn.
Independent lawmaker Mohamed Ali said that “it is time to revise this decree”, calling for “the greatest level of solidarity” between media, political and other groups as the election nears.
Parliamentarians previously submitted a request to revise the decree, in February 2023, but this was obstructed by the president of the legislature, said the journalists union.
Ayachi Hammami, a lawyer and activist who was also prosecuted under Decree 54 after he criticised the judiciary, said that the measure is employed “to strike hard against opposing voices, dismiss them and scare Tunisians”.
by Kaouther Larbi
High Court rules latest UK targets on climate unlawfully ‘vague’
The High Court ruled Friday that the UK government had acted unlawfully when it approved elements of its plans to meet net-zero targets based on “vague and unquantified” information.
It is the second time in two years that the court has ruled that ministers are not following the UK’s own climate change laws. A judge handed down a similar ruling in 2022.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in power since October that year, has faced persistent criticism that he is watering down the country’s commitment to net zero targets after a series of climate policy reversals.
Friday’s ruling was prompted by on a legal challenge by campaign groups Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project. It means ministers must redraft part of their net-zero plans.
“This is another embarrassing defeat for the government and its reckless and inadequate climate plans,” Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe said.
The groups took joint legal action against the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero over its decision in March 2023 to approve the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (CBDP).
The plan outlines how the UK will achieve targets in the country’s so-called carbon budget, which runs until 2037, as part of wider efforts to reach net zero by 2050.
They argued that the relevant secretary of state at the time, Grant Shapps, lacked key information on whether individual policies could be delivered but approved them anyway.
That breached the 2008 Climate Change Act, which requires such due diligence on emissions-cutting targets and strategies, said the groups.
High Court judge Clive Sheldon agreed, calling the plan presented to Shapps for sign-off “vague and unquantified” and saying it lacked “sufficient” information.
“It is not possible to ascertain… which of the proposals and policies would not be delivered at all, or in full,” he concluded.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson insisted “the claims in this case were largely about process and the judgment contains no criticism of the detailed plans we have in place.
“We do not believe a court case about process represents the best way of driving progress towards our shared goal of reaching net zero,” the spokesperson added.
