Can ordinary citizens use the courts to force their leaders to fight climate change? In the most revolutionary climate ruling to date, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands delivered an emphatic “yes” on December 20, upholding a court order forcing the Dutch government to cut national carbon emissions.
Category: Climate Change
Sooner or later, the courts will be in the path of Hurricane Harvey. The flood apocalypse could become Exhibit A in the legal argument that the courts have to act to prevent future disasters. Climate scientists do not focus on individual storms but their findings have been clear for decades: climate change will make hurricanes more intense and dramatically increase the chances of “500-year” floods happening in a city like Houston three years in a row.
Harvey has struck at a moment when judges across America are grappling with lawsuits over global warming. Will the courts intervene in a political system that denies climate change and impose cuts in carbon emissions? Will they make the fossil fuel industry liable for coastal flooding? Hurricane Harvey, a landmark event, might pave the way for a landmark decision that a stable climate is a fundamental right.
They’re too young to vote but old enough to sue the government. And now, to win.
Photo credit: Concentrated Photovoltaics / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
What if the public, alarmed about government’s failure to do enough, fast enough, to stop climate change while there’s still time, could sue?
Nine hundred Dutch citizens have done just that—and won. The historic recent decision, rendered in June, is already inspiring lawsuits in other countries.
