CB BureauA landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands requires the government to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25 per cent from 1990 levels by the end of 2020. It is the first time a nation has been required by its highest court to act against climate change and cut its emissions. This case was brought by the environmental group Urgenda, which filed the lawsuit in 2013 against the Dutch government with nearly 900 co-plaintiffs. The ruling, in Dutch, can be read here.
The Supreme Court thus upheld the original ruling in 2015 by the Hague District Court, which had ordered the government to reduce GHG emissions by at least 25 per cent from 1990 levels in the next five years. The chief justice, Kees Streefkerk, said that because of climate change ‘the lives, well being and living circumstances of many people around the world, including in the Netherlands, are being threatened. Those consequences are happening already.’ He also said that the argument that a cut in emissions in the Netherlands would not have a big effect globally did not absolve a country from its own responsibility to reduce its emissions.
As per the court’s ruling, the government has explicit duties to protect its citizens from climate change impact. It states that individual nations have direct obligations under articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which covers the right to life and the right to private and family life.
The Dutch government had previously said it would comply with the ruling, but it repeatedly appealed over the legal basis for the decision. The Supreme Court’s decision ensures that the government has to comply with this requirement in some substantial manner.