Does a country have a legal duty to reduce its carbon footprint? Dutch court to decide landmark case
Concerned that the Netherlands isn’t doing enough to reduce its carbon footprint, a group of nearly 900 citizens filed a highly unusual lawsuit against the Dutch government in 2013.
Asserting violations of human rights and tort law, the class action (PDF) seeks a court ruling requiring the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions so that, by 2010, they are between 25 percent and 40 percent less than 1990 levels. Brought by the Urgenda sustainability foundation and 886 individual plaintiffs, the suit also seeks reimbursement of legal fees.
A court hearing was held in the Hague last month, and observers worldwide are waiting to see what results from what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, reports NPR. Earlier BBC and Guardian stories and an Urgenda press release provide additional details.
Attorney Roger Cox is representing the plaintiffs. “There is a parallel here with the situation in the 1950s in the United States,” he told the Guardian. “It was the courts that decided that segregation in schools was not constitutional. It wasn’t a big issue in society and it wasn’t political but it was a few people fighting and the courts following up that created a huge change in American society.”
