We’re challenging Starmer on climate failure

The UN secretary general Antonio Guterres is clear: COP30 in Brazil is a vital opportunity for the world to “change course”.

As Keir Starmer set off for Belém he repeated the familiar line that the UK is “leading the way”  in tackling the climate crisis. But his government is failing to meet the challenge.

Starmer abandoned his pledge to invest £28bn on green jobs and infrastructure before he even made it into 10 Downing Street, and today he opted out of a flagship fund for the world’s remaining tropical forests. He’s put a project for drilling in the UK’s biggest oil field at Rosebank – which would release so much carbon dioxide it has already been declared unlawful – back on the table. He’s given the green light to airport expansion at both Heathrow and Gatwick. And he’s still handing out fossil fuel subsidies worth £17.5bn a year.

While Starmer stalls on climate action, the far right keeps pushing forward the dangerous agenda of the billionaires and oil companies they represent. And with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on the rise, time is running out.

The science is clear. The technology is ready to roll out. All we need is the political will to make it happen.

Good Law Project is working with Global Legal Action Network and our claimants SOS UK, Tipping Point and Save Hemsby Coastline to challenge the UK government. Starmer’s climate framework is so full of holes that it breaches our right to family life.

Last month, the government set out its latest plan to take on global heating. But it doesn’t go far or fast enough. Starmer needs to set a firm target on phasing out fossil fuel production – and stick to it, instead of opening the door to projects that press the accelerator on climate breakdown. He must stop exporting emissions to other countries – and bring industry and jobs back to the UK. And he has to listen to the experts – who say that the UK needs to do much more to meet its fair share of climate action.

For Gerry Liston, legal co-lead at Global Legal Action Network, Starmer needs to pick up the pace.

“We are supporting this case,” Liston said, “because the UK government can and must do much more to prevent us from crossing the many climate tipping points we are so close to, which would have catastrophic consequences, including for the UK.”

We know what climate action looks like: cleaner air, cheaper energy, and healthier communities. So we’ve taken the first step towards a judicial review against the government’s climate framework. It’s time for Starmer to step up and build the future we deserve, before it’s too late.