UK failing on climate change – and rights to protest

The Aarhus Convention was set up under the United Nations in 1998 to improve the communication between governments and citizens on environmental policy and legislation and to commit to environmental justice. Forty-seven governments agreed to reflect its principles in national laws, including the UK (in 2005) under the Labour administration led by Tony Blair.  As action to limit catastrophes of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss and planetary pollution became ever more imperative, attention focused on the dilatory response of governments and their treatment of those pressing for more urgent action. In 2021 the Convention created a specific “mechanism to better protect environmental defenders” within a legally binding framework. A Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, Michel Forst, was appointed to oversee its implementation.

Despite these paper commitments the Conservative government has pushed policy and legislation away from transparency on the environment, is weakening regulation, and favours ever more draconian responses to environmental protest. It is clear however that the likely government-in-waiting led by Keir Starmer will be equally brutal in punishing environmental defenders.

The UK’s disregard of the Convention did not escape the attention of Michel Forst who visited the UK to talk with legislators and those affected by repressive UK policies in January 2024. The following article reported on the visit, Forst’s condemnation of the UK breaches of the Convention and his proposals for dialogue. Though most will not expect a positive reaction from either the government or opposition the visit has done environment defenders a service in drawing attention to further arguments they can put to judges and juries to support the legal legitimacy of their actions.

TB