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Urgenda (Urgent Agenda) Foundation v. The State of the Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment)

Den Haag District Court

Case No. C/09/456689/HA ZA 13-1396

Facts

The Netherlands (defendant) committed itself to the United Nations Climate Change Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, and European Union climate-change law. In accordance with these commitments, the government of the Netherlands pledged to implement a 21-percent reduction in emissions of greenhouse gasses, especially CO2, by 2020. Urgent Agenda (Urgenda) (plaintiff), a nonprofit foundation representing the people of the Netherlands, sued the Dutch government in the district court of the Hague, asserting that the seriousness of the issue made the 21-percent reduction too low of a target. Urgenda argued that emissions should be reduced by at least 25 percent—but preferably 40 percent—by 2020. The Netherlands argued that, due to its relatively small size as a nation, it had a correspondingly smaller obligation to reduce emissions.

Rule of Law

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Issue

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Holding and Reasoning (Hofhuis, Bockwinkel, Brand, J.J.)

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