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news.sciencemag.org 2015 02888.txt.txt

#In surprise, Dutch court orders government to do more to fight climate change In a ruling that came as a surprise to many legal experts, a court in The netherlands today ordered the Dutch government to dramatically intensify its fight against climate change. The district court in The hague ruled that by 2020, The netherlands must cut CO2 EMISSIONS by 25%from 1990 levels. Current government policies would lead to a reduction by just 17%.%The court ruled in a civil case against the government brought by an environmental group called Urgenda. The name is a contraction of rgentand genda. The case framed global warming as a human rights violation that the Dutch government must do more to prevent. Environmental groups hailed the ruling as a legal landmark that could inspire similar action elsewhere. But the court didn specify which measures the government must take to meet the target, and the verdict immediately triggered discussions about whether a 25%reduction in 5 years is feasible and whether it might hurt the Dutch economy. The court acknowledged that it is has no scientific expertise in climate changeut it didn need really to because the science itself was not on trial. The Dutch government did not dispute the international scientific consensus on climate change. The verdict (in Dutch) relies heavily on quotes, tables, and graphics from reports by the Intergovernmental panel on climate change and other international bodies. The court adopted the growing consensus that drastic reductions in CO2 EMISSIONS are necessary to prevent a temperature rise of more than 2°Ctarting with a reduction between 25%and 40%by 2020. The government had argued that The netherlands cannot make such major cuts on its own, a line of reasoning that the court did not accept. That The netherlands is responsible for less than 0. 5%of global greenhouse gas emissions isn a valid argument either it said. As the verdict put it: The government had argued also that the issue belongs in parliament, not in the courtroom. Aware that its decision might smack of judicial activism, the judges responded: Urgenda case was inspired by the book Revolution Justified, in which Roger Cox, a lawyer, argued that the legal community should become much more active in the fight against climate change, given that politicians seem unable to tackle the issue. Click here for a TEDX Talk by Cox. The government, which was ordered also to pay Urgenda legal bills, estimated at#13,522, has said not whether it will appeal w

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