Sir, – The ruling in a Dutch court compelling the government of the Netherlands to cut its greenhouse gasses by at least 25 per cent by 2020 ("Dutch court orders 25 per cent cut in greenhouses gasses by 2020", June 25th) should cause some uncomfortable shifting in the seats of Leinster House.
Judge Hans Hofhuis ruled that the Dutch government has a legal obligation to protect its citizens from the impacts of climate change and could not hide behind international negotiations aimed at reducing harmful emissions. This ruling is likely to lead to a number of similar cases throughout Europe.
Trócaire welcomes the Taoiseach’s openness to an amendment on the principle of climate justice in the Government’s Climate Bill, which goes before Cabinet this week.
However, the Government has repeatedly refused to enshrine a long-term emission reduction commitment into domestic law, instead pointing to international processes and EU obligations.
The Government has argued that including such a commitment could leave the state open to litigation. However, the Dutch ruling shows that the opposite may be the case.
We are already far off track towards meeting 2020 targets due to a failure of adequate planning since the expiry of Ireland’s national strategy in 2012.
The World Bank states that Ireland is the ninth-highest per capita polluter in Europe and each Irish person is responsible for as much carbon emissions as almost 100 people in the world’s poorest countries. The failure to curb global emissions places ourselves at huge risk of flooding and continues to exacerbate poverty in the developing world as the impacts of climate change worsen.
The Climate Bill currently fails to include a 2050 emissions reduction target and the Government has so far repeatedly ignored cross-party calls for this to be amended.
Who will rise to the challenge first – the Government or the Law Library? – Yours, etc,
ÉÁMONN MEEHAN,
Trócaire,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.