[2024] UKSC 20
R (Finch on behalf of the Weald Action Group) v Surrey County Council
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom · 20 June 2024
- Court
- Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
- Decided
- 20 June 2024
- Citation
- [2024] UKSC 20
- Status
- Decided; since applied to Whitehaven, Rosebank and Jackdaw
What was decided
The UK Supreme Court held that Surrey County Council acted unlawfully when it approved an oil project at Horse Hill without assessing the climate impact of burning the oil the project would produce. Where burning a project’s product is inevitable and can be estimated, those emissions are an effect of the project and must be assessed.
Why it matters
Finch decides what must be assessed, not what must be decided. Before it, the climate section of an oil project’s assessment could cover a small fraction of the project’s footprint. Now the largest number has to be on the table when the decision is made, and the reasoning has since been applied to a coal mine in Cumbria and to oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
3–2Majority in the Supreme Court; all five justices agreed the question has one right answer
10.6 MtCO2 from burning the oil, as estimated in the council’s own evidence
140,958 tOn-site CO2 counted in the developer’s assessment, described as “negligible”
How the case unfolded
11 September 2019
Surrey County Council’s planning committee decides that permission should be granted for six wells at Horse Hill.
2020
The High Court dismisses Sarah Finch’s challenge, brought on behalf of the Weald Action Group.
2022
The Court of Appeal dismisses the appeal by a majority.
20 June 2024
The Supreme Court allows the appeal: emissions from burning the oil must be assessed.
13 September 2024
The High Court quashes planning permission for the Whitehaven coal mine, applying Finch.
January 2025
Scotland’s Court of Session quashes the consents for the Rosebank oil field and the Jackdaw gas field.
