Jonathan Church

Key information

Jonathan joined UCL as a PhD candidate in September 2020, following 6 years as a climate accountability lawyer at the environmental law charity, ClientEarth. During that time, Jonathan worked on a range of environmental law challenges, specialising in climate governance at the international, national and EU level. A particular focus was the development of the legal claim against the UK Government over its failure to keep pace with emissions targets; something Jonathan continued to work on as a consultant to ClientEarth in Friends of the Earth and others v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2024] EWHC 995 (Admin).

Jonathan has also advised on the drafting and implementation of national climate laws, including as an expert witness before the Oireachtas committee on climate action.

Jonathan’s PhD thesis challenges the approach taken by existing climate change laws and proposes an alternative model by which the law might more effectively drive emissions reductions.

Jonathan holds an LLM in Environmental Law and Policy from UCL and an MSci in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Research Supervisors

UCL Associations/Academic and Professional Memberships

UCL Centre for Law and Environment, 2020 –
UK Environmental Law Association (co-convenor, Climate Change and Energy Working Party), 2016 – 2018

Professional Experience

Consultancy work on climate change law, 2021 -
Climate Accountability Lawyer, ClientEarth, 2014 – 2020
Solicitor in private practice, 2011 – 2013

Public Engagements and Media Coverage

Jonathan has appeared in or been published / quoted in a range of media:

Carbon Brief, December 2020 - CCC: UK must cut emissions ‘78% by 2035’ to be on course for net-zero goal
Irish Times, October 2020 - Climate Bill will not deliver desired cut in emissions, says expert
BBC Future Planet, July 2020 – The law that could make climate change illegal
BBC Inside Science, April 2020 – Lockdown lessons for climate change and the carbon neutral Cumbrian coal mine
Sky News at 10, February 2020 – concerning the Heathrow judgment, [2019] EWHC 1070 (Admin)
Nature podcast, September 2018 – Negative emissions and swarms under strain
ITV News at 10, October 2017 – concerning the UK Government’s Clean Growth Strategy
BBC News, September 2017 – Climate change: Ministers should be ‘sued’ over targets
Carbon Brief, May 2017 - Guest post: Can the US legally weaken its Paris Agreement climate pledge?
Financial Times, October 2016 – Court battle threat hangs over climate change law
BusinessGreen, October 2014 – Why the Climate Change Act cannot be ‘suspended’

Publications

'Paris at the sub-national scale? An exploration of the role and potential of framework climate change laws' (2022) 45(3) Melbourne University Law Review 1045-1092 (A Foerster, A Bleby, A Kallie and J Church)
Navigating Net-Zero: Global Lessons in Climate Law-making (ClientEarth, September 2021)
Mind the Gap - Reviving the UK Climate Change Act (ClientEarth, October 2016)
Enforcing the Climate Change Act (2015) 4(1) UCLJLJ 109, UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence