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.