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The Government’s climate plan has been ruled unlawful by the High Court in yet another setback.

Campaign groups mounted the legal challenge after warning the strategy relied on risky technologies and glossed over the risk of missing targets.

The Government claimed it met all of its three previous "carbon budget" targets to cut emissions and was on track to meet future targets.

The High Court's decision came after another challenge by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project.

A previous ruling sided with campaigners by declaring the Government's Net Zero Strategy did not explain how targets were met.

The second legal challenge, which was raised following a revised strategy, was provided with a written ruling on Friday.

Judge Clive Sheldon upheld four out of five grounds of the second ruling.

Ministers committed to publish a new report within 12 months to comply with the ruling.

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However, they also stressed the overarching plan had not been criticised and will remain Government policy.

Campaigners said the second plan relied too much on "unproven" technologies.

The technologies include those that capture carbon dioxide from factories or power plants and store them underground, known as CCS.

CCS projects have so far proven difficult to scale up and remain expensive.

Reacting to today's High Court ruling on the government's climate plans, Juliet Michaelson, co-director of climate charity Possible said:

"This ruling shows that the low hanging fruit of decarbonisation has been picked, and the government needs to stop hoping for magic solutions to the climate crisis. The reality is that we need real public engagement on making changes to how we get around, things we eat, what we buy, and how we heat our homes.

"Rather than trying to turn climate into a culture war, the government should be bringing people together around popular and practical solutions to the climate crisis which can make our lives better. Calmer roads, cleaner air and cheaper bills will be the consequence of a proper plan for the climate, so let's get on with it"

A spokesperson for the Government's energy security and net zero department said: "The UK can be hugely proud of its record on climate change.

"Not only are we the first major economy to reach halfway to net zero, we have also set out more detail than any other G20 country on how we will reach our ambitious carbon budgets.

"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."

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