IEMA reacts to Supreme Court intervention from the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP)

Reacting to today's attempted Supreme Court intervention from the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP) IEMA's CEO Sarah Mukherjee MBE said:

We welcome the OEP's application to intervene in this important case because the law in this area must be clarified.

These sorts of developments which include the extraction of fossil fuels have significant impacts on the climate. IEMA's guidance takes this into account but the law is unclear. This is an opportunity to gain clarity from the Supreme Court.

IEMA's best practice guidance for assessing the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for new developments requires the consideration of indirect effects such as resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.

More widely this case highlights the need to strengthen the Impact Assessment regime which IEMA believes is critical to responsible development.