Court orders Dutch to toughen climate policy

The Dutch government has started drafting policy to reduce the Netherlands’ greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, after being ordered to toughen its controls by judges, writes Keith Nuthall. However, Infrastructure and Environment Minister Wilma Mansveld has told the Dutch Parliament that the government intends to appeal against the ruling brought by the Court of The Hague.  

The government will argue that the Court should not have heard the case brought by activist Marjan Minnesma because it was based on the government allegedly breaking Kyoto Protocol commitments by planning a 17% reduction. Mansveld argued that as an international agreement, ‘it does not apply directly to citizens’ and hence Minnesma had no legal standing to challenge the government’s plans. That said, Mansveld announced interdepartmental research into how to hit the 25% target would begin, building on what she regarded as the ‘already ambitious’ climate policy of the Dutch cabinet. 

The government is currently a coalition between the centre-right liberals of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, which favours the old policy, and the centre-left Labour Party, which wants stronger climate change legislation. Mansveld is a Labour Party member and said additional climate reforms would be proposed by next June. A similar case has been brought against the Belgian government and is pending.