THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Residents of the Dutch-Caribbean told a court on Tuesday that climate change had made life on their island of Bonaire unbearably hot and dry and asked judges to order the Dutch state to cut greenhouse gases more quickly.
Onnie Emerenciana, a farmer in his 60s, told the court that the heat affected the health of the elderly and the poor, droughts affected crops and rising sea levels risked wiping out historically significant slave huts on the island’s beaches.
“We are succumbing under the effects of greenhouse gas emissions that we have barely contributed to,” Emerenciana told the district court in The Hague.
Bonaire in the southern Caribbean is a former Dutch colony and became a special Dutch municipality in 2010. It has around 20,000 inhabitants who are Dutch citizens.
The eight plaintiffs in the case want the Netherlands to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2040, 10 years ahead of its current plans, and say the Dutch government has not done enough to protect the island against rising sea levels.
There are only eight plaintiffs as travel to the Netherlands for the case is costly and time-consuming, but any ruling will apply to the whole island.
The case is supported by environmentalist action group Greenpeace, which said parts of Bonaire were likely to be permanently submerged by 2050.
“The problem is the state does not do what it promises and keeps stalling climate policies” even while it is projected that it will not meet its own goals, plaintiffs’ lawyer Michael Bacon said.
Lawyers for the Dutch state are due to speak later on Tuesday.
They have filed written arguments insisting that judges cannot set government policy. They have also said that greenhouse gas emissions are a global problem and Dutch contributions are only a small part of it.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Alison Williams)
