Court Rules That Dutch Climate Policy Is Insufficient, Violates Human Rights Law

 In a landmark ruling, The Hague District Court found the Netherlands’ failure to protect Bonaire residents from climate change to be discriminatory, and ordered the government take swift action on climate mitigation and adaptation.

A court in the Netherlands has ruled that the Dutch government has not taken sufficient action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to protect residents of an overseas Dutch island territory from increasingly severe climate change impacts. The ruling and order for the government to take concrete climate mitigation and adaptation measures sets a historic precedent that could have ripple effects far beyond the Netherlands, climate advocates say.

According to The Hague District Court, the Netherlands has not aligned its climate policy with the global goal to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and has failed to take timely action to help safeguard residents of the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire from the consequences of climate change, such as flooding and sea level rise. In failing to prioritize climate adaptation for the island, the government has unlawfully discriminated against the people of Bonaire, the court said. It found that the government’s insufficient climate action violates the European Convention on Human Rights, and ordered the state to take swift action to set binding economy-wide emissions reduction targets and develop a detailed climate resiliency plan for Bonaire.

The ruling, issued on January 28, comes in a case filed in 2024 by Greenpeace Netherlands and eight residents of Bonaire against the Dutch government seeking greater climate protection measures. Bonaire, an island of approximately 26,000 residents located just east of Curaçao in the Caribbean Sea, is highly vulnerable to rising sea levels and other damaging climate impacts. Up to one-fifth of the island could be underwater by the end of the century absent urgent action, research commissioned by Greenpeace has found. Residents are already experiencing more extreme heat and flooding, and the island faces increasing risks to low-lying infrastructure and to its mangroves and coral reefs.

The Dutch government, following a 2023 recommendation, has started to take steps to develop a climate policy for Bonaire. But the court found this to be too little and too late. “There is no good reason why measures were taken later and less systematically for the residents of Bonaire, who are affected earlier and more severely by climate change, than for the residents of the European Netherlands,” the ruling states. The court said the government must now develop, by 2030, an adaptation plan for Bonaire.

“Today we're making history,” Onnie Emerenciana, a plaintiff and Bonaire resident, said in response to the ruling. “The State can no longer look the other way. The next step is to free up funds and expertise for concrete action plans to protect our island.”

Greenpeace called the ruling a “world first” that has global relevance. “It is the first time that a European court has ruled that a country must take concrete adaptation and mitigation measures to protect all of its citizens, no matter where they live, from the impacts of climate change,” the organization said in a press release.

It also marks the first climate case in Europe to apply the historic advisory opinion on climate change issued last July by the International Court of Justice, which found that the 1.5 degrees Celsius objective established in the Paris Agreement is legally binding and that countries must demonstrate that their climate plans and policies can collectively achieve this target.

In its decision, The Hague District Court said that the Netherlands “is pursuing a climate policy that does not comply, in a binding and transparent manner, with the measures that must be taken worldwide to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.” There is currently no binding emissions reduction target for 2030 under Dutch law, and the Netherlands is unlikely to achieve the proposed EU target of 55% emissions reduction by 2030 with current measures, the court noted.

The court has ordered the Dutch government to incorporate binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for the entire economy into national legislation within 18 months.

In a statement, a representative for the Dutch government acknowledged what she called a “ruling of significance” for residents in Bonaire and the European Netherlands. “Together with my colleagues from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK), we will carefully review the ruling and will provide an initial response in a timely manner,” said Sophie Hermans, minister for climate policy and green growth.

Marieke Vellekoop, director of Greenpeace Netherlands, said the court has delivered a “historic victory” and a “huge breakthrough” for Dutch climate policy.

“The government’s discrimination of the people on Bonaire is finally being acknowledged and they now must protect them from extreme heat and rising sea levels,” Vellekoop said in a statement. “The State must also do its fair share with new climate targets to stay below 1.5 degrees of global warming. This means that Dutch greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced much faster.”

Dennis van Berkel, a Dutch lawyer with Urgenda – a sustainability organization that led a previous successful climate case against the Dutch government – said the court has once again issued a ruling of global importance.

“This is another very big day for climate protection,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post commenting on the ruling. “Little over 10 years after the Hague court in the Urgenda case lay the foundation for a global wave of cases holding governments and corporations to account for their climate obligations, leading all the way up to the crucial climate decision of the International Court of Justice last year, the Hague court again publishes a decision that will send ripples far beyond its borders.”

Vesselina Newman, a lawyer with the UK-based environmental law organization ClientEarth, agreed that the decision is likely to have far-reaching impacts, calling it “totally groundbreaking.”

“The ruling, based on discrimination against the inhabitants of Bonaire, is significant,” Newman said, “and will surely open doors for a host of comparable cases around the world - in particular other Global North countries with overseas territories.”