Small Island Tests Big Climate Change Ruling In Court

Climate legal experts told Reuters that this is one of the first cases to test these new standards established by courts that help set precedent around the world, with Lucy Maxwell of the Climate Litigation Network telling them that “If successful, the Netherlands will need to increase its climate ambitions beyond the current European Union targets – setting a new bar for climate action in Europe.” Bonaire, a small Caribbean island whose roughly 20,000 inhabitants are Dutch citizens, is represented by eight plaintiffs and the environmental action group Greenpeace. Farmer Onnie Emerenciana is one of the defendants who says that summers have turned their homes into “prisons of concrete,” and they are demanding that the Netherlands take more drastic action to curb the myriad climate impacts harming their lives.

This wave of legal challenges represents a new generation of climate action with a little more teeth to it. While Switzerland’s legislature voted to disregard the European human rights court’s ruling after it was handed down, the cases are mounting across the world for someone to assume responsibility for the calamitous impacts of climate change. Whether that be big oil suppressing the realities of their business they knew about for decades, or governments whose entire existence is rooted in taking responsibility for the conditions within their borders, courts are increasingly determining that someone must start cleaning up this mess.

Maine, New Jersey, California, Delaware, Minnesota, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia have filed suits against big oil in recent years. The Colorado state Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the city of Boulder does have standing to sue ExxonMobil and Suncor’s Colorado business, and the Maryland Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a case determining whether or not communities can sue oil companies over climate impacts harming them. Cases like these are quickly becoming a common occurrence, and island nations have become particularly litigious as they are most directly under threat from rising seas.

It’s easy to feel hopeless about the world these days and assume that no one is coming to help, but Mr. Rogers’ seminal advice is instructive right now: look for the helpers. They’re all around us. Taking giants and the countries that once colonized them to court and doing what they can to hold power responsible for its failures proves that there are plenty of people trying to do good in a world overrun by greed, and should the rule of law ever exist again for powerful people, there’s actually a fair number of court rulings we can point to that could hold power’s feet to the fire, with potentially many more to come.