Latest reports suggest that at least eight people from the Caribbean island of Bonaire are suing the Netherlands, accusing it of violating their human rights by not doing enough to protect them from the climate crisis.
The group, with Greenpeace Netherlands, filed a formal legal challenge against the Dutch government in The Hague on Thursday, asking the district court to order it to cut its greenhouse emissions much more quickly and to help its most vulnerable territories adapt to the impact of the climate crisis.
Located nearly 8,000km (about 5,000 miles) from the capital of the Netherlands, Bonaire has been a Dutch special municipality since 2010. But the Netherlands has been present on the island for about 400 years, and in 2022, the government apologised for enslaving its people.
As a low-lying island, Bonaire is likely to experience serious consequences from climate change, including extreme weather and sea-level rise. An October report from the Dutch meteorological institute (KNMI) found that temperatures in the Caribbean Netherlands had already increased by about 0.2C every decade since the 1980s. Rainfall is declining, particularly in the dry season. Experts expect this to worsen if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.
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Onnie Emerenciana, who is a farmer living on Bonaire and one of the plaintiffs, said that it was already becoming increasingly difficult to grow crops because of the growing heat, wind and unpredictable rain. “It’s becoming very, very, very hard to plant.”
The KNMI report concludes that climate policy that focuses on reducing emissions can make a big difference to the future of Dutch Caribbean islands such as Bonaire.
Research by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, commissioned by Greenpeace, shows sea-level rise is likely to permanently submerge parts of the island by 2050, a problem exacerbated by the loss of coral reefs as a natural buffer against the oceans warming and acidifying.
The studies also concluded that the climate crisis would exacerbate health problems on the island and could ruin its cultural heritage and tourism industry. Bonaire is a popular diving destination, and the degradation of coral reefs could lead to the loss of the majority of dive sites, which it is estimated will reduce visitor numbers by more than 100,000.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
