Dutch government fights historic climate case in court on same day students worldwide demand climate action

Urgenda’s groundbreaking legal victory in 2015 marked the first time in the world that citizens successfully sued their national government for not doing what is necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. The district court of The Hague ruled that the Netherlands was violating its duty of care by not taking appropriate action and ordered the government to reduce Dutch emissions by a minimum of 25% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.

 

Despite overwhelming public support for the case, the Dutch government appealed to The Hague Court of Appeal, but lost their appeal on 8 October 2018. The Court of Appeal ruled that the Dutch government is violating human rights by not taking action to avoid potentially catastrophic climate change. Despite announcing it would implement the judgement, the State appealed again, this time to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

 

The continued fight of the Dutch government against the historic judgement starkly contrasts with the calls of many thousands of students around the word who will take to the streets on the same day to demand that urgent action is taken to safeguard their future. Urgenda’s case has inspired similar climate cases against governments all around the world, including in Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, France the US, and against the EU, which have attracted the support of millions of people.

 

Urgenda is confident that the previous decisions will be upheld, which may force the closure of three new coal-fired powerplants which opened as recently as 2015 and 2016. As a result of Urgenda’s victory, the government has already announced it will close one coal plant that was built in the 1990's. However, a large gap remains between the projected reductions for 2020 and the reductions required by the court. In 2018 emissions were only 14.5% lower than 1990 levels.

 

Marjan Minnesma, the Director of Urgenda, stated:

 

The oral arguments of the parties will be heard from 9:00 to 11:00 (address: Korte Voorhout 8, 2511 EK, The Hague).

 

On 8 January 2019 the government filed their grounds of appeal. On 12 April 2019 Urgenda filed their written defence. A decision is expected in the second half of 2019.

 

The Supreme Court will offer a livestream from the courtroom (in Dutch) via: https://www.rechtspraak.nl/

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Background information: 

For more information about the Dutch climate case, see http://www.urgenda.nl/en/themas/climate-case/

 

For original coverage of the 2015 case see the Guardian, BBC and NY Times

For coverage of the judgement of the Court of Appeal in 9 October 2018 see the Guardian and this op-ed by Marjan Minnesma.

For coverage of international climate cases, many of which were inspired by the Urgenda ruling, see https://www.urgenda.nl/en/themas/climate-case/global-climate-litigation/