Oil Projects Must Consider Full Climate Impact, Top U.K. Court Rules

Britain’s highest court has ruled that local councils and planning groups must consider the full environmental impact of new fossil fuel projects when deciding whether to approve them, a decision that could have far-reaching consequences and that climate activists hailed as a major victory.

In particular, the ruling will make it harder for Britain to move ahead with plans to develop large offshore oil fields in North Sea, including Rosebank, one of the country’s largest undeveloped oil fields. Situated off the coast of Scotland, Rosebank contains an estimated 300 million barrels of recoverable oil.

“This is hugely significant, not just in the U.K. but in the world,” Annalisa Savaresi, a professor in climate change law at the University of Stirling in Scotland, said of the ruling, which Britain’s Supreme Court handed down on Thursday. “It’s not the end of oil, but it’s definitely an important procedural step that has been long overdue.”

Previously, councils and planning groups in Britain were obligated to consider only the planet-warming emissions from their own operations. Now, they will also be required to estimate and disclose the emissions produced by their suppliers or consumers, such as from oil being refined or burned as fuel. Those emissions, produced along what’s known as a company’s “value chain,” make up the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions related to oil production.

The case is among a growing number related to climate change that are being decided by international tribunals, national courts and in U.S. states. In January, a court in Norway ruled that three government-issued permits to develop new oil and gas fields were invalid because the environmental impact had not been sufficiently assessed. And in April, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland had failed to meet its targets in reducing carbon emissions and must act to address that shortcoming.

The ruling in Britain, a 3-to-2 decision by the Supreme Court judges, involved a case brought against Surrey County Council, southwest of London, by an environmental campaigner who argued that a proposal for new oil wells needed to take into account the impact of emissions from the use of oil extracted. Justice George Leggatt, who gave the majority opinion, wrote that it was “inevitable” that oil from the site would be burned and therefore needed to be considered.