After withholding a climate assessment of its £26bn infrastructure plan, the prospect of legal action from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) and Good Law Project has won a promise from Scottish Ministers to publish it ...
Save Our Shore Leith: Two years of advocating for a clean Water of Leith
SOSLeith have been fighting against sewage pollution for over two years, with little action from environmental regulators ...
Campaigners slam Scottish Civil Justice Council for refusing to consult on changes to legal expenses – press release
Campaigners have criticised the Scottish Civil Justice Council (SCJC), for its lack of transparency in undertaking a review of legal expenses ...
Petition handed in to Scottish Government for Human Rights Day
Today we submitted the final copy of our petition calling for an enforceable right to a healthy environment ...
This Human Rights Day, Scotland must realise the promise of the right to a healthy environment
Human Rights Day marks a key moment in human history: 10 December 1948, when representatives from across the world came together to sign the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Yet the rights it contained were incomplete ...
Still no progress on access to justice in Scotland as UN deadline looms – press release
Scottish Government actions to address the ‘prohibitive expense’ of taking environmental cases to court have been branded ‘truly woeful’ by campaigners ...
New briefing: Investigation reveals why legal expenses regime needs reform
In October 2021, ERCS submitted a FOI request as part of an investigation into the impact of Protective Expenses Orders. The information disclosed reveals how the current system continues to act as a barrier to justice ...
Scottish Ministers pressed for details over pledge to fix climate law breach – press release
Scottish Ministers are currently refusing to produce the full climate impact assessment of the carbon emissions expected to be generated by their £26bn Infrastructure Investment Plan – crucial to their pledge to reach net zero by 2045. The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) and Good Law Project have now warned the Scottish Government that court proceedings could be on the cards if these figures are not revealed to the public. Following legal pressure from ERCS and Good Law Project, last month the Scottish Government belatedly accepted that its failure to publish an assessment of the climate impact of its Infrastructure Investment Plan is in breach of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. The Scottish Government has now pledged to undertake “urgent work” to remedy this. It says it will publish its current emissions reduction targets and an assessment of whether the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment Plan will make it more or less likely these targets will be met. But Scottish Ministers are so far refusing to provide a transparent climate assessment to back up their claims. Without quantifying emissions or showing their calculations, it is impossible to verify whether or not the Infrastructure Investment Plan is fully compatible with emissions reduction targets. In their latest letter to the Government, ERCS and Good Law Project argue that Ministers must publish this information to comply with their legal duties. The letter warns that without Ministers’ co-operation on this matter, the prospect of court proceedings could be on the table. Dr …
Header image: 'Rainbow joy, Gadloch' by Emma Donaldson.
