The Brussels Court of Appeal on Thursday condemned the Belgian state, the Flemish Region and the Brussels-Capital Region for having made and are making too little effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This was reported by press magistrate Anne Leclerc.
The non-profit organization Climate Case went to court in 2015 to force the Belgian authorities to respect the promises made regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In June 2021, the French-speaking court of first instance in Brussels largely ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ruled that the Belgian governments had been negligent in their climate policy, and that Belgian environmental policy violated the legal duty of care and human rights.
However, the court did not impose any measures on the reduction of greenhouse gases on the Belgian state and the regions, which is why Climate Case filed an appeal. The Brussels Court of Appeal has now ruled that the Belgian state, the Flemish Region and the Brussels-Capital Region were indeed at fault.
“The court rules that the three governments have violated Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Articles 1382 and 1383 of the old Civil Code, because they had insufficient greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 brought back,” says press magistrate Anne Leclerc. “The court is also of the opinion that this error continues today, because the governments have not set sufficiently strict targets and have not taken sufficiently far-reaching measures to sufficiently limit emissions by 2030.”
The court now orders the three governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990, although the court has not yet ruled on the penalty requested by the non-profit organization Climate Case.
This article is originally published on .bruzz.be
