London's High Court has granted Greenpeace’s request to challenge the British government over granting new licenses for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, Reuters reports. The challenge will now proceed to a full hearing, with Greenpeace challenging the government and oil and gas regulator North Sea Transition Authority to justify the expansion of drilling in the North Sea. The UK held its first oil and gas exploration licensing round since 2019 last year in a bid to shore up local energy supply after energy prices spiked.

Across the pond, US local governments come after big oil in court over climate-related damages: The US Supreme Court has decided that Exxon, Suncort, and Chevron will have to defend their climate-damaging activities in state courts, Reuters reports. The court rejected motions filed by the oil companies for the lawsuits to be moved to federal courts to state courts — which typically favor the plaintiffs. The lawsuits were filed by the state of Rhode Island and municipalities or counties in the states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, and Maryland.

OTHER STORIES WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THIS MORNING-

• Denmark has signed a five-year cooperation agreement with Ukraine to jointly rebuild Ukraine’s wind energy generation capacity. (Reuters)
• The US has designated a zone spanning some 9.8 mn acres in the Gulf of Maine for potential offshore wind energy projects. (Statement)
• The US Energy Department has announced a USD 13 mn initiative to design community geothermal heating and cooling systems in 10 states. (Statement)
• American green hydrogen startup Ohmium has raised USD 250 mn in a fresh funding round to boost its green hydrogen manufacturing capacity. (Statement)