Court orders government to take action on climate

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has ordered the government to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas 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 courts to take action against climate change.

Because of climate change, “the lives, well-being and living circumstances of many people around the world, including in the Netherlands, are being threatened,” Justice Kees Streefkerk, the chief justice, said in the decision. “Those consequences are happening already.”

It was a victory for the environmental group Urgenda, which filed its lawsuit in 2013 against the Dutch government with nearly 900 co-plaintiffs.

“Today, at a moment when people around the world are in need of real hope that governments will act with urgency to address the climate crisis, the Dutch Supreme Court has delivered a groundbreaking decision that confirms that individual governments must do their fair share to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the group said.

This is the third court victory for Urgenda. In 2015, the The Hague District Court ordered the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 per cent from 1990 levels in the following five years. The lawsuit had demanded reductions of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent.

The government appealed that decision. In October 2018, The Hague Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Urgenda.

The government appealed that decision as well, this time to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. In September, the procurator general and advocate general, who advise the court, published an opinion urging the justices to reject the government’s arguments.

In the ruling Friday, Streefkerk said the argument that a cut in emissions in the Netherlands would not have a big effect on a global level did not absolve a country from taking measures to reduce its own emissions. “Every country is responsible for its share,” he said.

In practical terms, the Supreme Court’s decision will force the government to take strong action to reach the 25 per cent reduction, which could include closing coalfired power plants, some of which opened as recently as 2016.

ROBIN UTRECHT / ANP / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Royal Dutch police officers escort a Greenpeace activist during a protest to denounce airline pollution in the main hall of the Amsterdam Schiphol airport. The Supreme Court in the Netherlands has ordered the government to sharply reduce that country’s greenhouse-gas emissions.