Strategic Climate Litigation in the Dutch Courts: a source of inspiration for NGO’s elsewhere?

Abstract

In its landmark Urgenda judgment of 20 December 2019 the Dutch Supreme Court confirmed the lower courts’ order compelling the State of the Netherlands to limit the joint volume of Dutch annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% at the end of 2020 compared to 1990. This case, launched by the Dutch NGO Urgenda, may encourage further strategic climate change litigation against both governments and (multinational) companies. Already, building on Urgenda, the NGO Milieudefensie has launched a lawsuit against RDShell in the Dutch courts. To what extent may these cases serve as models in other jurisdictions? Two aspects deserve special attention: the procedural standing of NGOs, and the different legal grounds – duty of care derived from civil tort law (including choice of law), or from human rights law – upon which the courts in Urgenda based their decisions, and Milieudefensie bases its claim.

Keywords

• climate change litigation
• collective and public interest lawsuits
• duty of care
• impact of climate science (policy) and inter-state obligations
• european convention on human rights (arts. 2, 8, 34)