A duty to assess an oil project's downstream greenhouse gas emissions: the UK Supreme Court in Finch

Mayer, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0669-7457 and Slowik, M. (2025) A duty to assess an oil project's downstream greenhouse gas emissions: the UK Supreme Court in Finch. Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law. ISSN 2050-0394 doi: 10.1111/reel.12607

Abstract/Summary

National environmental impact assessment (EIA) frameworks have generally been applied as requiring an assessment of the effects of projects on greenhouse gas emissions and, thus, on climate change. Yet, a question that has repeatedly been asked is whether an EIA should only consider a project's direct, on-site emissions, or also its indirect emissions. In R (Finch) v County of Surrey, the UK Supreme Court found that the approval of an oil project was unlawful on the ground that the EIA had not considered the downstream emissions that would result from the combustion of the oil by its end users. This judgment contributes to the emergence of a global consensus on the need for the EIAs of fossil-fuel projects to consider downstream combustion emissions. Yet, it leaves many questions open as to how far indirect emissions are to be assessed.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/122060
Identification Number/DOI	10.1111/reel.12607
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Law
Publisher	Wiley
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