Citizens take govt. to court

[J o h n S m i t h]

A Dutch court has ordered the country slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 per cent by 2020, after a group of citizens took their government to court.

"The court orders the state to reduce the overall volume of greenhouse gas emissions in such a way that they are at least 25 per cent less in 2020 compared to 1990," judge Hans Hofhuis said.

The ruling came after almost 900 Dutch citizens took their government to court in April in a bid to force a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change.

Marjan Minnesma, who heads environmental rights group Urgenda which brought the case, said it wanted The Hague to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.

"The parties agree that the severity and magnitude of climate change make it necessary to take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," the court said in its ruling.

"The state must do more to reverse the imminent danger caused by climate change, given also its duty to protect and improve the environment."

Effective control of Dutch emissions is "one of the state's tasks", it said, adding that the cost of the reductions would not be "unacceptably high".

The Amsterdam-based Urgenda said the case was the first in Europe in which citizens attempted to hold the state responsible for its potentially devastating inaction and the first in the world in which human rights are used as a legal basis to protect citizens against climate change.

The plaintiffs had asked the judges to rule a rise in global temperatures over two degrees Celsius would be a human rights infraction.

The international community agreed to peg global warming to 2C over pre-industrial levels.

Lawsuits against governments and companies have increasingly been seen as a way to press for action against climate change over the past decade.

Countries are to publish their own undertakings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a hoped-for global deal to be agreed in Paris in December.

The 28-member European Union said it would reduce emissions by 40 per cent compared to 1999 levels by 2030, while the world's second-largest polluter after China, the United States, said it wanted to reduce emissions by between 26-28 per cent by 2025.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-24/d ... ns/6571328

I'm surprised it only took 900 people to succeed.


I wonder if we can do the same with Abbott the dickhead?

[Super Nova]

I think the human rights act is completely abused in Europe.

While I support action to reverse the changes we have made I don't support a bunch of hippies using this act to implement any change they like under it.

It is a well intended act that has been used and abused to try and force countries to:
- Allow prisoners to vote
- Allow illegal immigrants to stay because they have a relationship with their cat.
- Allow welfare abuse and welfare tourism
- Allow medical tourism and then the state with free medical has to fix them
- ................ bla bla

However if they were trying to force the government to implement a target that they put into law.... that's OK. if it wasn't ... well this is just the wrong way to go. Which is the case here from what I read. A small minority can argue anything under the human rights act.

The legal system will rule the world rather than elected representatives making the law. This feels like the beginning of a breakdown in our fundamental separation of legislature, executive and judiciary.

[J o h n S m i t h]

OK, I agree that it does seem like an abuse of the human rights act, but it sure seems like a good way to hold a government to account.

If politicians promise the voters something, or sign up for something, they should carry through with it. Having said that I don't know what the Dutch politicians did or did not promise, nor if the Dutch have signed up to some international green house reduction scheme . I was just thinking it might be a good way to hold our own politicians to task when they deliberately lie or ignore obligations that THEY have committed us to.