A Belgian court has said that the country’s climate targets is “clearly insufficient”, ordering the government to cut emissions faster.
In what has been described as a powerful victory for climate campaigners, the Brussels court of appeal ordered Belgium to cut its planet-heating pollution by at least 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. By 2021, Belgium had cut its emissions by just 24%.
According to reports, the court rejected arguments that Belgium’s impact on the climate crisis was limited by its small size and found its climate governance to date had violated human rights.
In a post on X, Zakia Khattabi, the Federal climate minister said that the judgment – together with the European Commission’s expected response to Belgium’s national climate and energy plan – “constitute levers to strengthen and give credibility to our climate policies”.
The court case, which was brought by the nonprofit Klimaatzaak on behalf of more than 58,000 claimants, has dragged on for years through Belgium’s legal system. The ruling builds on a previous verdict that found Belgium’s climate policy inadequate by ordering the government to cut emissions faster.
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According to reports, the governments will now have to set a 2030 target of at least 55%, a level of ambition greater than its current obligations of 47% under EU effort-sharing rules.
Scientists warn that the new target will still not be enough to keep extreme weather from rapidly growing more violent. An analysis from the Grantham Institute in March found that Belgium would have to cut emissions at least 61% by 2030 to keep the planet from heating 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, the level for which world leaders have promised to aim. If the right to pollute were to be shared out more equally between everyone on the planet, Belgium’s cuts would have to be even deeper, reaching 81% by 2030.
World leaders are currently in Dubai for the Cop28 summit to thrash out agreements on stopping climate change, adapting to its effects and paying for the damage it causes.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
