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| Hague climate change verdict: 'Not just a legal process but a process of hope' | Hague climate change verdict: 'Not just a legal process but a process of hope' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Related: Hague climate change judgement could inspire a global civil movement | Related: Hague climate change judgement could inspire a global civil movement |
| It all came about as the result of an online discussion. We have a platform on our website that acts as a sort of thinktank for sustainability experts. One of the users was Roger Cox [one of the lawyers in the case]. He had been reading all sorts of books and reports on climate change and thought that the politics will just never move quickly enough to reduce emissions or stop temperatures rising. | It all came about as the result of an online discussion. We have a platform on our website that acts as a sort of thinktank for sustainability experts. One of the users was Roger Cox [one of the lawyers in the case]. He had been reading all sorts of books and reports on climate change and thought that the politics will just never move quickly enough to reduce emissions or stop temperatures rising. |
| He was thinking about what action you could take that would still be a part of normal society, and the only invention he thought might work was to let a judge speak – if you gave a judge all the details he would surely decide that climate change is an urgent and serious problem, and that the state should protect its citizens as part of its duty of care. We’re an NGO that tries to make the Netherlands more sustainable as quickly as possible, and I’ve studied law so I saw what he was hinting at and I said: “Let’s do it!”. | He was thinking about what action you could take that would still be a part of normal society, and the only invention he thought might work was to let a judge speak – if you gave a judge all the details he would surely decide that climate change is an urgent and serious problem, and that the state should protect its citizens as part of its duty of care. We’re an NGO that tries to make the Netherlands more sustainable as quickly as possible, and I’ve studied law so I saw what he was hinting at and I said: “Let’s do it!”. |
| Right after the verdict, the lawyers and I were hugging with tears in our eyes | Right after the verdict, the lawyers and I were hugging with tears in our eyes |
| Roger and another lawyer made up the legal part of the case. We discussed everything in public and garnered a great deal of free publicity because this was the first time that citizens had tried to go through a judge to ask the government to take action on climate change. We called it ‘crowdpleading’. | Roger and another lawyer made up the legal part of the case. We discussed everything in public and garnered a great deal of free publicity because this was the first time that citizens had tried to go through a judge to ask the government to take action on climate change. We called it ‘crowdpleading’. |
| We asked everyone in the Netherlands to share their expertise and knowledge and to tell us about any similar court cases they knew of that we could use as a framework. People wanted to join the case and in the end we had 900 co-plaintiffs. The Urgenda Foundation sent in the legal procedure on their behalf and after a year and a half of back and forth, we were finally, physically in court in April of this year. | |
| The co-plaintiffs were people from all parts of society: there were teachers, people working in care, Joos Ockels (the wife of the Netherlands’ first astronaut), DJ Gregor Salto, a few people from the art world like architect Thomas Rau, and front runners from the sustainability world. But more than half of the co-plaintiffs were normal people who had read our newsletter and said “I’m going to join.” There were more than 100 co-plaintiffs in court with us when the judge announced his verdict – housewives, pensioners and the one next to me was an 11-year-old schoolkid who had asked to be let out of school for the day. | The co-plaintiffs were people from all parts of society: there were teachers, people working in care, Joos Ockels (the wife of the Netherlands’ first astronaut), DJ Gregor Salto, a few people from the art world like architect Thomas Rau, and front runners from the sustainability world. But more than half of the co-plaintiffs were normal people who had read our newsletter and said “I’m going to join.” There were more than 100 co-plaintiffs in court with us when the judge announced his verdict – housewives, pensioners and the one next to me was an 11-year-old schoolkid who had asked to be let out of school for the day. |
| I thought that Roger and Dennis did such an extremely good job of presenting all the information that it would be impossible for the judge to disagree with us. I didn’t think the state lawyers were very good – they just kept saying that it was not a matter for a judge, but for politics – I was kind of disappointed. I don’t think they knew much about climate change before this case. Our lawyers argued that the situation of the state’s commitment to climate change was so bad that as a citizen, you could go to a judge and say: “Please protect me.” This part of the argument was not really covered by the state so everything was there for the judge to agree with us. | I thought that Roger and Dennis did such an extremely good job of presenting all the information that it would be impossible for the judge to disagree with us. I didn’t think the state lawyers were very good – they just kept saying that it was not a matter for a judge, but for politics – I was kind of disappointed. I don’t think they knew much about climate change before this case. Our lawyers argued that the situation of the state’s commitment to climate change was so bad that as a citizen, you could go to a judge and say: “Please protect me.” This part of the argument was not really covered by the state so everything was there for the judge to agree with us. |
| Related: 15 ways to powerfully communicate climate change solutions | Related: 15 ways to powerfully communicate climate change solutions |
| Right after the verdict, the lawyers and I were hugging with tears in our eyes. We had been working on this for two and a half years and here we had the first sentence saying that climate change is urgent and important. The ruling that the state should reduce emissions by 25% in five years was the best we could hope for. We were euphoric. I had a bombardment of emails saying congratulations. We had interviews with newspapers and radio stations from China to Canada – it didn’t stop until after midnight. | Right after the verdict, the lawyers and I were hugging with tears in our eyes. We had been working on this for two and a half years and here we had the first sentence saying that climate change is urgent and important. The ruling that the state should reduce emissions by 25% in five years was the best we could hope for. We were euphoric. I had a bombardment of emails saying congratulations. We had interviews with newspapers and radio stations from China to Canada – it didn’t stop until after midnight. |
| When I got home last night I looked at my messages and so many of them said things like: “Mrs Minnesma, I don’t know you but I was in front of the TV with tears in my eyes.” It is so nice for people to have that hope again. This was not only a legal process, but a process of hope. We haven’t had time to celebrate yet - I told my three children that we’ll do that this weekend. | When I got home last night I looked at my messages and so many of them said things like: “Mrs Minnesma, I don’t know you but I was in front of the TV with tears in my eyes.” It is so nice for people to have that hope again. This was not only a legal process, but a process of hope. We haven’t had time to celebrate yet - I told my three children that we’ll do that this weekend. |
| I think plaintiffs in Belgium and Norway [where similar cases are pending or in preparation] will look to our case and bring it in front of their own judge to show how the Dutch verdict was structured, Many things in our verdict are general that they can copy for example, 80% of all our arguments and supporting documentation can be used in any country. Other aspects will depend on the different legal systems. | I think plaintiffs in Belgium and Norway [where similar cases are pending or in preparation] will look to our case and bring it in front of their own judge to show how the Dutch verdict was structured, Many things in our verdict are general that they can copy for example, 80% of all our arguments and supporting documentation can be used in any country. Other aspects will depend on the different legal systems. |
| Related: Global injustices: getting access to the law is still impossible for most | Related: Global injustices: getting access to the law is still impossible for most |
| With cases around asbestos poisoning, in the beginning all the cases were lost, but at a certain point the system changed and people starting winning. I think our case is like that, it’s very special, and now hopefully more people will win climate liability suits. Hopefully our case will give people the courage to do the same because they can see what a judge can do with a good legal system in a normal country like the Netherlands. | |
| Marjan Minnesma was talking to Katherine Purvis. | Marjan Minnesma was talking to Katherine Purvis. |
| Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. | Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. |