A leaked report from the European Commission revealed that the United Kingdom’s opposition to new EU targets for green energy could mean the loss of over half a million jobs over the next two decades. Along with Czech Republic, the U.K. has opposed setting a renewable energy goal for 2030. Both nations want individual countries to be required to meet greenhouse gas emission levels instead. According to Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Davey, the EU should promote a “technology neutral” approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

In the United Kingdom, anti-shale groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are using property law to attempt to stop hydraulic drilling, a process that they believe pollutes water and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Citing trespass laws, anti-fracking campaigners argue that it is illegal for companies to drill under a person's property unless the landowner gives consent, and so far they have succeeded in pushing production back several years.

A wind farm project in the village of Collector, New South Wales (NSW), has been recommended to proceed despite opposition from the local community. The NSW Department of Planning recommended approval in its final report on the project, which has now been sent to the NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) for a final decision. Local resident Tony Hodgson, president of the anti-wind farm group Friends of Collector, voiced concerns about the wind farm.

Compensation talks will begin this week between Royal Dutch Shell lawyers and 15,000 Nigerian villagers who say oil spills destroyed their livelihoods. The villagers sought millions of dollars in payment in London for two spills that polluted the Bodo fishing communities of the Niger Delta. Shell accepts responsibility for the spills but it disagrees with the plaintiffs about the volume spilled and the number of people who lost their livelihoods. Talks broke down in 2012 before the lawsuit, but will resume this week in Port Harcourt, the main city in the Delta.

New UK rules on biomass upset both industry and environmental campaigners last week, as regulations failed to reassure companies of continuing financial support and simultaneously worried green groups that they would open the door to the use of biomass linked to deforestation in other countries. The proposals put strict limits on how the government would support biomass, setting it at a disadvantage to other forms of generation as some new plants will be excluded from new contracts.

A British court has thrown out a case brought against Anglo American South Africa, a subdivision of the UK mining multinational, saying it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. Over 2,000 miners filed suit against the company after contracting the lung disease silicosis, a disease with no known cure that causes shortness of breath, a persistent cough, and a high susceptibility to tuberculosis. Anglo American switched its headquarters from Johannesburg to London in 1999, but maintains around $15 billion worth of assets in its South African unit.

Britain's high court ruled last week that the government can favor small vessels when redistributing fishing quotas. Small fisherman fought for the government to reallocate unused or underused permits given to large trawlers, saying that smaller ships provide more jobs and are more environmentally friendly than large vessels. It is unclear how broadly the ruling applies, however, because the court only considered unused quotas, which only represent a small fraction of UK's total. Ministers attempting to reallocate quotas in use would likely face additional legal challenges.

The UK supreme court ruled last week that the government was guilty of breaching its legal duty to uphold European Union air quality laws. Britain's highest appeals court said that the government had breached a nitrogen dioxide directive and asked for guidance from the European Court of Justice on what actions need to be taken. The ruling marks the first time that a UK court has recognized that the government has failed to meet EU pollution rules, but the European court may take as long as 18 months to reply with answers to certain legal questions.

Energy company EDF dropped a $7.6 million lawsuit against a group of 21 activists who occupied a gas-fired power plant, claiming that they had reached a "fair and reasonable solution." Supporters of the demonstrators, who EDF claimed caused millions of dollars in production delays, called the result a "humiliating climbdown" and an "unmitigated defeat" for EDF.

The United Kingdom Supreme Court may force the United Kingdom to take urgent measures to rapidly reduce air pollution in British cities as the government admitted that air quality laws will be breached in 15 regions until 2020. The case, which will be heard by five law lords, concerns claims by ClientEarth that the government has a legal duty to comply with EU time scales and that its plans to reduce pollution are inadequate.