The environmental campaign group, Feedback, has taken the government to court over what it claims as a “failure” to ensure that food strategy contributed to meeting its carbon budgets.
The group stated that it is in the Court of Appeal for a judicial review today (Tuesday, November 7), for a hearing continuing from yesterday.
Feedback claimed that the government’s failure to budget its food strategy towards net zero was arguably unlawful under the Climate Change Act 2008, which states that the government must put in place policies to meet carbon budgets.
The campaigning group said it believes that the government had a duty to adopt measures to reduce meat and dairy production and consumption in its Food Strategy published in June 2022.
It said that the Food Strategy did not address the emissions impact of meat and dairy, nor put in place policies for mitigation.
Executive director of Feedback, Carina Millstone said: “We are confident our judicial review will establish that the government has a legal responsibility to put in place policies to reduce emissions in the food and farming sector.
“We trust it will compel the government to act on the advice of its own climate experts, who have said time and time again that meat and dairy reductions are required if we are to meet our legally enshrined climate targets.”
The group stated that tackling emissions from the food and farming sector is “key” for government to meet climate targets.
It stated that the livestock industry is responsible for about 14.5% of global emissions and, if current trends continue, the global livestock industry will be using up almost half the world’s 1.5°C emissions budget by 2030.
“We hope that our case will be the high water mark for the government’s disregard and denial of the measures it must urgently adopt and implement to avoid climate and environmental breakdown,” Millstone said.
