The First Successful Climate Negligence Case: A Comment on Urgenda Foundation v. The State of the Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment)

On 24 June 2015, the Hague District Court issued the long-awaited judgment in the case of Urgenda Foundation v the State of the Netherlands. The decision has been heralded as a historical landmark ruling, and rightly so. The Urgenda decision marks the first time ever that a court has ordered a government of the day to curb a State’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Globally, it is also the first case in which the tort of negligence has been successfully used to hold a State liable for its failure to adequately mitigate climate change. This case commentary begins by briefly setting out some back... Mehr ...