The Wadden Association wants Shell to adopt measures to prevent further CO2 emissions globally and is taking the oil and gas company to court.
Translation by Traci White
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the group will be working together with Environmental Defense (Milieudefensie) on the case. On 5 April, a bailiff will present Shell with a 100 page summons at their headquarters in The Hague.
Urgenda
Roger Cox of Paulissen Barristers in Maastricht has been hired to represent the environmental groups in the process. In 2015, Cox won the famous Urgenda law suit, where 900 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government. The court ruled that the Netherlands has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by the year 2020 in order to protect its citizens.
It was a landmark case and was described as the “world’s first climate liability suit” by The Guardian, but NOS reported in January that various cabinet members have said that such a dramatic reduction will not be possible by 2020.
Sea level rise
The Wadden Association is a Dutch environmental protection and conservation group based in Harlingen which was founded in 1965. The group focuses on preserving the Wadden Sea, the Wadden Islands, coastal areas along the Wadden Sea and certain sections of the North Sea.
The Harlingen-based group’s case is based on sea level rise, which presents a direct threat to the UNESCO World Heritage region. The Dutch meteorological institute KNMI has projected that sea levels could rise by as much as 100 centimeters by the year 2100, which would submerge much of the Wadden region’s characteristic sand bars and foraging areas.
