On December 22, 2020, the Norwegian Supreme Court dealt a hard blow to the fight against climate change. The Court confirmed (in Norwegian) the validity of a 2016 royal decree granting ten production licences in the Barents Sea, dismissing the claims that drilling activities violate the right to a clean environment enshrined under Article 112 of the Constitution and the right to life and the right to privacy, family life and home protected under Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
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Human rights as a means of fighting climate change
On 20 December 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court issued a landmark judgement upholding the Court of Appeal’s decision in the Urgenda Foundation v. Netherlands case. The class action initiated by 900 Dutch citizens had as a core question whether the State had a duty of care to protect its citizens against the imminent danger caused by climate change. By compelling the State to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% compared to 1990 by the end of 2020, the Supreme Court answered the question positively.
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