Dutch Supreme Court Upholds Landmark Ruling Demanding Climate Action
Source: The Guardian
Court rules Dutch government has duty to protect citizens' rights in face of climate change. The Netherlands' supreme court has upheld a ruling ordering the country's government to do much more to cut carbon emissions, after a six-year fight for climate justice.
The court ruled that the government had explicit duties to protect its citizens' human rights in the face of climate change and must reduce emissions by at least 25% compared with 1990 levels by the end of 2020. The non-profit Urgenda Foundation, which brought the case, welcomed the "groundbreaking" judgment. The original judgment in 2015 was seen as a landmark in the then nascent field of climate litigation, and inspired similar cases across the world, from Pakistan to New Zealand.
David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, said it was "the most important climate change court decision in the world so far, confirming that human rights are jeopardised by the climate emergency and that wealthy nations are legally obligated to achieve rapid and substantial emission reductions."
The Dutch government had previously said it would comply with the substance of the ruling, but it repeatedly appealed over the legal basis for the decision. The latest national statistics show the Netherlands is very unlikely to meet the 2020 emissions target. The Netherlands passed its first piece of national climate legislation in 2018, it has published a more ambitious carbon plan for 2030, and it is closing its first coal plant next year. - More...
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/dutch-supreme-court-upholds-landmark-ruling-demanding-climate-action
'Climate Change Litigation Enters a New Era as Court Rules That Emissions Reduction Is a Human Right,' Fortune, Dec. 20, 2019.
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands in The Hague on Friday delivered what may be the most unequivocal legal statement so far that governments are responsible for acting to address climate change.
In a closely-watched case that could have wide ramifications for litigation worldwide, the court ruled that the Dutch government must reduce emissions by at least 25% by the end of 2020 compared to 1990 levels, going beyond the EU-wide objective of 20%...https://fortune.com/2019/12/20/climate-change-litigation-human-rights-netherlands/
