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In a Dutch appeals court verdict, the government of the Netherlands has been ordered to uphold a lower court's ruling that the Netherlands is responsible for reducing its own greenhouse emissions more, so that the effort better reflects the seriousness of the consequences of global warming for the Low Countries' own citizens.
This is a worldwide first, that a government is ordered to take measures against AGW.
From the Guardian: Dutch appeals court upholds landmark climate change ruling
Other sources: de Volkskrant (unfortunately paywalled :-( )
NRC Handelsblad 2018-10-09 "Urgenda-uitspraak maakt burgers partij in klimaatbeleid" (in Dutch)
FAZ 2018-10-09 "Niederlande werden zu Klimaschutz gezwungen" (in German)
Le Monde: nothing yet
"Urgenda", the activists that started the court case: Urgenda Foundation (in English) N.B. website very slow at the moment.
CNN: nothing yet
Fox News: Fox Business 2018-10-09 "Dutch appeals court upholds landmark climate case ruling"
(I can already imagine the advert: "For sale: coal power plant "MPP3". slightly used. Location: Maasvlakte, probably a bit above sea level (ish). Conveniently next door to de Noordzee. Transport costs not included.")
(to eds: I couldn't decide if this topic fell under "survival", "politics", "law", "tech" or "energy", so I plonked it in "Techonomics". Please advise. FAZ put it under "economics" and NRC under "news")
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:59PM (12 children)
My my how the brain can pretzel itself into any form necessary to preserve its own bullshit.
For some straaange reason I just can't imagine the country shutting off power plants with no alternatives ready whatsoever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @09:30PM
Well, can they construct the equivalent alternatives by 2020? Because the court ruling says they need to shut them off by then.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @09:35PM (6 children)
The government plans to deliver a report on what to do by next spring. So they will have at most 10 months to replace the power output of half the power plants built in the last 30 years.
Basically, there is no way this happens. The only thing that may happen is they start buying electricity from a neighboring country and have just pushed their carbon problem over there.
(Score: 3, Informative) by legont on Tuesday October 09 2018, @10:40PM
Bingo; they will (through intermediaries to make it politically correct) buy from Russia.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Aegis on Tuesday October 09 2018, @11:28PM (3 children)
This is an appeal, the original ruling was in 2015.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @11:42PM (2 children)
Which means what? All I did is read TFA, in there they say according to the ruling they need to do this by 2020.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @05:50AM (1 child)
Which means they were already supposed to be working on it for the past 3 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @12:02PM
Yes, I got that. What is the relevance of it?
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Wednesday October 10 2018, @04:16AM
What happened was, that the citizens wondered: "what the fuck are we taxpayers building a new COAL power plant for?!?".
It's just as windy on the coast of the Netherlands as on Denmark.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @10:03PM (1 child)
The problem is that a handful of small "advanced" countries like the Netherlands or New Zealand make life exceptionally expensive for their own citizens by having all sorts of eco-taxes in place. Meanwhile, 96% of the world does not give a fig and continue trying to "develop" from their 3rd world existence - and their pollution output is increasing, unregulated. How is this fair?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by legont on Tuesday October 09 2018, @10:44PM
It is perfectly fair up to the point where quality of life conditions between so called developed and developing countries switch. Than there will be a WWIII where new winners come up. Regardless, they are not going to be Dutch; forgetaboutit.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday October 09 2018, @10:45PM (1 child)
> For some straaange reason I just can't imagine the country shutting off power plants with no alternatives ready whatsoever.
Well, the Japanese learnt to waste a bit less, and it mostly worked.
The Germans barely had more time, yet they did.
But it's either gonna be open season for building windmills and solar fast in Holland, or they're gonna have to pray that the EDF has those new nukes running. Alternatively, they could pass some kind of law to buy time, which would make more sense.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NewNic on Tuesday October 09 2018, @11:33PM
If only the Netherlands were near a large body of water where wind powered turbines could be sited ....
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory