‘Seeing’ climate change litigation as energy justice litigation in the UK through legal imagination

This chapter argues that whilst litigation concerning the transition to low-carbon energy sources in the UK is often characterised as strategic climate litigation, such case law has broader impacts on society, which can be analysed more comprehensively by framing such litigation as energy justice litigation. Inspired by John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’, we develop an analytical framework that frames UK climate change litigation as energy justice litigation. We then apply this framework to three notable UK cases concerning climate change issues, regarded as landmark climate litigation in the UK (Finch, 2024; Cumbria Coal, 2024; and Net Zero Strategy, 2022). In conclusion, we highlight how the outcomes of these cases engage with core principles of energy justice: procedural, distributional, and recognition justice, providing a novel analytical framework that reimagines climate change litigation as energy justice litigation which can be framed as a means to protect human and environmental rights.