A judgment in a Dutch court has left the Netherlands government with a legal requirement to perform the politically suicidal task of cutting emissions 25% by the end of 2020.
Netherlands climate change: Court orders bigger cuts in emissions
20 December 2019
The highest court in the Netherlands has upheld a ruling requiring the government to slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% of 1990 levels by the end of next year.
The case was brought six years ago by the Urgenda environment group in a bid to force ministers to go well beyond EU targets.
However, the chances of the government reaching the target look slim.
By the end of 2018, emissions were down only 15% on 1990 levels.
Dutch environment researchers believe that levels could be cut by 23% by the end of 2020 but believe the reduction could be as low as 19%.
- Dutch forced to cut speed limit to lower emissions
- Tractor protest sparks ‘worst Dutch rush hour’
- Last decade ‘on course’ to be warmest
The government in The Hague presented its climate accord at the end of June, with plans for a 49% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and phasing out coal-fired power generation starting in 2020.
…
Last month, under pressure to act over a nitrogen oxide pollution crisis, Dutch ministers announced a cut in the daytime speed limit to 100km/h (62mph). The Council of State forced the government to act in that case, by declaring that rules for granting building and farming permits were in breach of EU law protecting nature.
In its decision on Friday, the Supreme Court said it had based its ruling (in Dutch) on the UN climate convention and the state’s legal obligation to protect the lives and well-being of Dutch citizens.
“There is a great deal of consensus in the scientific and international community over the urgent need for a reduction in greenhouse gases by at least 25% by developed countries,” the court said.
…
The Dutch Government has been badly caught out by their own climate hypocrisy. Enshrining climate action in law may have seemed a good idea at the time, but that law means Dutch politicians can be held accountable for failing to meet their fantasy climate targets.
At the same time, rising discontent with increasingly draconian climate action is threatening to cause major civil unrest. The recent climate action inspired tractor road blockade, which saw furious Dutch farmers defying army roadblocks, is only a taste of what will happen if the Dutch Government seriously attempts to act on this latest carbon emissions court order.
In the background is the undemocratic, authoritarian European Union, which like the UN appears to be increasingly turning to climate action as the source of its political legitimacy. The EU will likely vigorously oppose any attempt by the Dutch Government to defuse their current climate dilemma by backing down on climate action.
The Dutch farmers will never accept this, but their subservient government gave away their sovereignty to the corrupt UN. Good luck Dutch farmerS you got screwed over by idiots in Dutch government stupidity. Now you have to get rid of them to change the law. Madness!
They did not give away sovereignty to the UN but to the EU. UK has just taken the first necessary steps to rectifying that situation. Up to other EU countries to like Italy and France to reclaim their sovereignty too. Everyone nation can use clause 51.
Brussels it welcome to rule over Belgium, meddling in the internal affairs of other states needs to stop now.
They call this a Dutch Treat e.g. “koekjes van eigen deeg “in the local language.
Looks like the Neither-lands will need to institute mandatory 4-10 work week with no driving allowed on the remaining 3 days. Reductions will come from Neither Working nor Driving Friday thru Sunday.
Corbyn in the UK was already talking about a 4 day week during the election campaign. I guess that was a winning policy for Labour. Pretty much all of the country south of Watford was blue, except for London.
So, how important are the farmers?
Oops! Harming the farmers is really going to hurt the economy. Everyone will start to hurt shortly thereafter.
Nothing will change over the next 12 months, and the repercussions will amount to nothing at all.
Never vote left folks, never vote left.
Definitely one possible outcome. But still fun to wait and see.
It’s often been said in the UK that we take such things as EU edicts far too seriously. Continental governments are far more adept at just ignoring court rulings. They go through all the lengthy appeals processes and then ignore the result some more. By this time the problem might well have gone away, competitors gone bankrupt, or the penalties are still not severe enough to cause change. Or they appeal the penalties. After a decade of so, if it starts to become a real problem they might start raising the matter to just get it changed at some EU meeting. This will be in return for obliging another country who has similar problems in a different area.
And so it continues.
It’s a game UK politicians never really became good at.
Openly attacking Farming
Will only end up harming
Their fragile Economy
To such a dichotomy
I find it all rather Alarming
The best way to reduce CO2 is by getting rid of all government.
And all people too!
When it comes to CO2 emissions, bureaucrats have all sorts of ideas to force upon farmers, but none of them will say “Hey let’s outlaw all air travel miles programs” which would cut emissions from the air travel industry by about half.
Especially important as air travel accounts for a mere 0.5 ppm of co2.
What!? Frequent flyer miles add that much CO2? Where do I sign up?
Do you fly a lot? Because I did up until a couple years ago and let me tell you, you have to fly a lot of miles to earn one free round trip or buy a new TV with your miles instead. It is not pay for one round trip ticket and get a second round trip ticket for free as you imply.
shut down the airports and ship ports, that should get the reduction they seek
Right!
And it will stop movement of bulk cargoes – coal, grain, iron ore, bauxite, etc.
And containerised cargo – all those oh-so-necessary consumer goods, frozen foods, and the rest of international trade.
This may raise attention – though there may be unemployment, slump, and deaths . . .
Ah – a feature, not a bug.
Of course.
Auto
Unelected Dutch leftist court is the new government.
Pass the dutchie on the left-hand side.
It is said that this song was really about poverty. Which would make it all the more relevant in this case.
I thought that was something to do with rules when socially smoking a splif. Not sure what dutchie has to do with poverty, though they are probably about to find out.
After Australia volunteering to the be the worlds renewable energy crash-test dummies, it looks like the Dutch have just volunteered to be the worlds low carbon economic crash test dummies. .
A Dutch oven is a cooking pot, rather than smoking pot, colloquially shortened to ‘dutchie.
Thus, a cooking pot with not much in it is a reference to poverty. No doubt it was understood at the time that other meanings could be gleaned from the lyrics, including even driving on a different side of the road in the Netherlands (to the UK).
Sure, it might be hard to believe a reggae song is not about dope, but that is what was reportedly said about it.
It was originally “Pass the Kouchie”, a cannabis pipe.
According to the history I knew, anyway. And Wikipedia agrees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_the_Dutchie
I think you will garner a great deal of consensus from the pot smoking community.
Well, a Dutchie, being a Dutch oven, is a cooking POT
Wrong.
A “Dutchie” is an unevenly rolled marijuana cigarette.
Your song is about dope.
Over decades of camping and hanging around re-enactors, all who actively use “dutch ovens”, I’ve never heard anyone refer to them as “dutchie”. That is a dope smoker’s term.
“Dutch ovens” are not associated with poverty.
While there are ‘cheap’ dutch ovens, a good dutch oven is not cheap.
Instead, back in older times before mass manufacturing, dutch ovens were expensive.
However, dutch ovens are essential cooking implements for anyone cooking over a fire. Where most pots and pans are designed for cooking by heat applied to the bottom, a dutch oven’s entire mass heats up and allows baking by even radiant cooking heat from the top.
Correct. A Dutch oven lid has a reverse dome, or flat top with a ledge, so that coals can be placed on top in addition to bottom and sides. Also, proper Dutch ovens are made of cast iron, so they are not amenable to backpacking unless you have a pack mule or horse or raft or car.
Could a “dutchie” also be a pregnancy “preventer”?
Or this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFtLONl4cNc
Dutch oven also describes a situation when you trap a persons head under a blanket when you have just cut the cheese.
Too true about Australia , except it was not Australians who volunteered , it was a bunch of activists and some weak minded self centred politicians . Our safety bag was Tony Abbott which got deflated by Turnbull and cronies . Scomo is not really trying to blow that bag up . The federal and state govt differing objectives are stopping all progress in sensible energy management or policy .
Talk about missing the point. I said “it was said” and “reportedly”, both of which appear to be true, believe it or not. I understand fully the dope connotation and it may well be that the original cooking pot reference was a joke in the first place. I was certainly repeating it partly in jest. And it’s not as if I give a tinker’s cuss about the song itself.
The important point is that this insistence by the Dutch is a lead into poverty.
The other point that may be gleaned from this discussion above is that there’s a long way to go before sceptics will win over the public on AGW if we over-react like this.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend resorting to using Wikipedia references on these pages when that online encyclopedia has entries like “Global warming is the long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system. It is a major aspect of climate change, and has been DEMONSTRATED* by direct temperature measurements and by measurements of various effects of the warming.”
* My bold. Obviously.
Well obviously,the only solution is to cull the citizens until compliance is reached.
I know that it’s sarcasm but, there are people who adhere to that belief. Don’t encourage them.
Another solution is to cut the electricity to the courts. If that doesn’t get them to a 25% reduction, keep cutting the electricity to any government branches which supports this madness. That would do the trick.
I’m not so sure if it is anymore, I’ve noticed that psychopathic liberals have the ability to outstrip my wildest speculative reasoning. Whatever screaming nightmare I propose, they will soon enact.
That’s because they peruse WUWT for ideas
So let us give them some “good Ideas”.
Hug A Polar Bear ,become One with Nature.
Personal CO2 capture Mask.
Carbon removal surgery.
Carbon Free living reservations.
Fossil Fuel Freedom.
As long as we retain the marketing rights to the video footage,I am good with any of those.
Gulling the Gullible has to become a national sport.
“Carbon Free living reservations.” Yup, a cemetery, the final solution.
“Whatever screaming nightmare I propose, they [“psychopathic liberals”] will soon enact.”
Screaming Meme-ies.
This court ruling is actually a very good thing. It will highlight the totally irresponsible actions of legislators passing virtue signaling nonsense without any grounding in reality.
If the court had ruled the Green Virtue Signallers could wiggle out of their own nonsense laws, the nonsense would just continue. So now let the real consequences collapse around them simply as a precautionary tale to the what the future holds if they continue with unicorn farts and fairy dust wishful thinking climate policy nonsense while everyone watching form the sidelines as the Dutch economy goes into a tailspin or the politicians have a meltdown… or both.
If only the Dutch people would learn that the corruptly broken science that their expensive green sacrifice is predicated on is so wrong, it’s an embarrassment to legitimate science.
Could not agree more – totally accurate analysis IMO.
Well said!!!
What “climate convention” is that ? Chile conference in Madrid
Paris 2015 and the Netherland’s INDCs. Paris 2015 INDCs start in 2020.
The Dutch Law said they’d meet their INDCs. Now let them try.
Climate Change (CC) itself is not to be feared at all. Humans and nature have been quite adeptly and successfully dealing with CC for the last 3 million years.
But this newcomer CC policy is the real threat to both humanity and environment
It is clearly Climate Change Policy that will be the scythe that will cut down the OECD economies and hasten environmental destruction … if the Marxist-Greens and the UN Marxists are allowed to get their way. And if 7 billion people find themselves cut off from fossil fuel energy…. where will they turn?
And what will happen to their wastes and decline of civilization on the way to a pan genocide famine?
Sadly, isn’t everything in that convention non-enforceable?
Not wishing ill on any Dutch people, but it would be instructive to watch them try. People really do need to see where all this silliness eventually leads.
It is not enforceable by the UNFCCC, the European Council adopted their emissions goals for their member countries.
EU Council made legally binding reductions on its members:
https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/European%20Union%20First/LV-03-06-EU%20INDC.pdf
Introduction, Paragraph 3.
Between a rock and a hard place. It seems that the citizens have been sold a lemon, and the politicians wrote the contract in law. There is no easy out from this one, except another Brexit.
Nexit?
NedExit
they are going to get serious pushback, not just from farmers but from the general population. Folks are starting to have enough of this extremist BS, right across Europe.
Bwhaahh,ha,ha,ha,ha, snortle. Are they making pi = 3 too?
Well then there’s CMIP Climate model math where stuff like:
π = 3.0 (±0.2) can exist.
They may argue they aren’t wrong, but they sure as hell will never get anything correct.
Oh Yeah, they’re not “not wrong”, they’re “Not Even Wrong”
So can the dutch parliament not just change the law?
In most countries the legal system simply enforces the governments law.
I guess unless they were stupid enough to sign an international treaty which forces them to do something.
Many EU govts are coalitions, in which “greens” wield enormous power, and often the non-greens are really just a slightly paler shade of green. Expect much toy throwing and blaming of Russian and fossil fuel money. Popcorn time.
No. EU law and bureaucratic regulation are supreme over national law. Everyone who fails to understand the driving force behind Brexit needs to learn this point.
I have long believed that Europe is populated by The People Who Stayed Behind, whereas the US is populated by The People Who Chose to Leave. There is a “serf-ness” to the average European. “Please rule me, look after me, tell me my place, and I will work hard and be happy.” Americans are from the people who said, “To hell with this! I’m getting out. I’ll take the chances of crossing the sea with nothing but my brain and hardworking hands. I will find something better.” Places like Australia, too.
That’s pretty harsh. Plenty of people stayed in Europe because they had a good life there. It may have been just as rational for them to stay as for our ancestors to leave. Some of my puritan ancestors left England for what now seem pretty irrational reasons and they (or at least their community) ended up hanging witches in Salem.
Witches were burnt ,hung , in eruope before and after the puritans escaped, funny all this happening in the depths of the little ice age, fast forward 21st cent any one who dares question the religion of climate change is hung drawn and quartered, in a professional sense their doomed just like the poor witches of the LIA, notice the parallel as we descend into the next GSM.
The Puritans didn’t escape, they were, eventually, forced to find somewhere else to practice their intolerance.
” The People Who Chose to Leave ”
Gen. George Patton included language such as you write in his speech prior to taking troops with many having Italian and German ancestors into Italy (I think it was.)
Where’s my popcorn! We’re in for a show!
I wish I could laugh like Henry:
https://youtu.be/LGcaNY5eBWw
🤣
Does anyone know what the consequences will be if the “law” passed to reduce CO2 is not met.
Who exactly, will be prosecuted and what will be the sentence?
This smacks of complete lunacy.
The EU, has brought about a complete disconnect, between the legislators and the reality of life. I say the EU, because they are the ones that have suggested setting legally binding limits on everything. That mindset has clearly been infectious, with individual nations now going beyond even the impossible targets being set by the EU commissariat in Brussels.
The UK is leaving the dystopian EU, on the 31st of Jan 2020. It has taken us over three and a half years to break free from the control freak EU construct. Our departure will be the starting gun, for a number of other proud nations, to do the same. The EU is the test rabbit for the UN’s one world government policy. WE must stop these madmen and madwomen, from implementing their totalitarian nightmare on humanity.
Well said. UK is leaving just in time, add in the Moslem-African open borders invasion and the EU will implode. They can print money for a while, but even that scam will end badly.
EU or the 4th Reich is full on Green Fascism and open Borders colonisation.
Who will be ‘charged’ and ‘incarcerated’ for not meeting fantasy-rainbow ‘carbon’ (not a toxin, not a pollutant) targets?
EU Green Fascism, is technocratic-‘science fiction’, disregards people, jobs, the economy, wealth, food, or heating. It is a death cult.
In the Reich’s heartland of Germany BMW and VW have plans to close plants due to taxes, regulations, emission targets and green fascist policies. BMW Prez surmised that by 2030 the firm may not exist.
When the German car firms start closing down, the entire Reich economy will begin to collapse.
It begins in Holland with the farmers – but that is just the start.
“Ferd III December 21, 2019 at 1:21 am
…VW have plans to close plants due to taxes, regulations, emission targets and green fascist policies.”
VM already and has done for many years made cars in other countries that are not bound by EU emissions regulations. The Mk6 Golf and Polo are made in South Africa and the Amarok is made in Argentina. You won’t find many authentic German cares actually made in Germany. VW is not the only maker that does this.
You have missed that the German car companies are moving production away from Germany because they have ever increasing electricity costs. The same applies for their other darling industries such as steelmaking.
But this is good news! Just think how much less CO2 they’ll produce!
I would guess that the courts have the power to take matters into their own hands. Order the shut down of specific coal-burning power plants, with arrest and jail for contempt of court for the plant managers who refuse.
The undemocratic, authoritarian European Union is the direct descendant of the scheme devised by Martin Bormann towards the end of the Second World War when the defeat of the Military Initiative to rule the World was evident. The European Union is the disguise for the ruthless drive to subjugate the population under a Fascist-look-alike system run by an Elite and enslaving the hapless proletariat. ‘Climate Action was the most promising of the devices used to enable the destruction of the democratic system of government in favour of Fascist control.
Can’t they just change how much CO2 was produced in 1990, just like how they change the temperatures of the past?
Only if they decrease the CO2 amount from the past, just like only cooling is done with temps. That would only increase the misery….
Now that, after three years of stalling by parliment blocking the implementation of the wish of the people, clearly expressed in the 2016 referendum, we have a new parliment and Brexit is now under way, full steam ahead.
I imagine we’ll be hearing of Holland’s move towards “Hollexit” before long.
Or maybe Nedexit (Nederland Exit)
Dutch suicide.
This is just the first of many instances when we will find that climate change legislation in European countries entered into recently will need to be changed – sooner, rather than later. Watch Boris Johnson in Britain making a 180 degree about turn with British legislation very soon. Boris changes his opinions with the greatest of ease – as a courageous leader always is able to. This will happen simply because it will prove physically impossible to follow the legislation. This is the beginning of the end of the whole climate change groupthink phenomenon which has ruled the western world for 25 years.
Reality will finally break in. It may be a slow process : “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one” (Charles Mackay).
Hope you’re right Andy, laws do need to be changed. 25 years and several $trillion wasted to achieve absolutely nothing but heaps of worthless ugly wind and solar junk that will need to be landfilled during the next 25 years…at a cost of a few more $trillion. Wind and solar free by 2045!
I suspect Boris is like Trump; a pragmatist, not an idealogue. If something doesn’t work, becomes too costly, or has unintended consequences creating harm, ending it sooner rather than later is the best course of action.
In France there are a few political parties which advocate Frexit (France exit from EU).
I have never been interested in these parties but if this climate madness intensifies within the EU, we will have to think very seriously about Frexit.
I do not want to become the accomplice of a policy which will inevitably cause the extermination of a large part of the European population.
I think exiting the EU if you use the Euro will be highly problematic
One reason why the UK retained the pound.
Look at the experience of the former Soviet republics. It can be done. Success depends on having a viable economy.
This is one of the reasons I never had interest in Frexit before the climate madness.
That doesn’t seem like such a major issue to me. Several countries use the US dollar while not having any influence over US monetary policy.
https://www.businessinsider.com/usd-countries-use-dollars-as-currency-2018-5
In a similar way, the countries that currently use the euro could continue to do so for a convenient period such as 1-3 years while going through the reverse process of what they did back in 1999-2002. I couldn’t find any reference to what the Dutch did with their gulden notes and coins. Probably all destroyed to maximize the pain of reverting from the Holy Euro.
It won’t be free. Freedom isn’t free they say.
Sone questions remain. NL definitely won’t meet the emission targets, so: 1 what will be the sanction 2 who will pay the fine and 3 who will receive it. This verdict is without punishment.
Nice that Europe is “ahead” of the USA with renewables. Germany has proven that wind and solar are unworkable expensive junk. Now the Dutch are displaying the downside of economically unrealistic virtue signally made into enforceable law. Ouch for them, good for us…if we’re listening.
Looks like the Dutch have not only made it illegal to “tilt at windmills”, they have gone full anti Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I hope the farmers feed themselves and their families and the others can fend for themselves, maybe selling some carbon credits to buy granola bars.
What is it about tiny countries/regions that makes them do this, other examples being Scotland and Tasmania? One reason must be that they have umbilical cords (interconnectors) to other countries/regions, which they assume will provide them with electricity during the long renewable famines. A related reason is probably the security they get from being connected to larger entities, so they can forget about the mundane tasks of growing food, and making things, and can focus on real problems, such as difficulties faced by transgender migrants, and those suffering from the legacy of colonialism.
An easy hit would be to close the Maasvlakte coal fired power station that spends almost all of its time supplying the UK via the BritNed interconnector. Similar judicious choices could be made to reduce exports to Belgium and Germany. The Netherlands are already a net importer to the tune of about 10TWh per year.
An excellent plan. That would precipitate power outages in other ‘woke’ countries and force their governments to deal with their nonsensical policies, too.
“The recent climate action inspired tractor road blockade…”
Stop making stuff up to suit your agenda. They were protesting about having to reduce their nitrogen pollution – livestock farming is a leading cause. Nothing to do with climate. But thats what happens if your your MO is to recycle click-bait from Breitbart I suppose, it appears they can’t be bothered checking either.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-netherlands-farmers-protests/angry-farmers-cause-dutch-police-to-close-off-parliament-square-idUSKBN1WV0SZ
So the numbnuts are picking on nitrogen now? Don’t they realise it’s four fifths of the atmosphere and they haven’t even managed to control a trace atmospheric gas yet? These doomsters sure are suckers for punishment.
Hey loydo are you a little bit plump or having breathing problems yes no? Do you know any one with these conditions, there comming for you know.
https://www.rt.com/usa/476526-obesity-study-global-warming/
“They were protesting about having to reduce their nitrogen pollution – livestock farming is a leading cause”
More specifically, nitrous oxide and ammonia, a greenhouse gas and an indirect greenhouse gas, respectively. So the farmers are protesting the requirement to reduce those greenhouse gases because of … climate.
Four provinces backtrack on nitrogen rules after new farmers’ protests
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2019/10/four-provinces-backtrack-on-nitrogen-rules-after-new-farmers-protests/
Unlike Loydo, farmers are able to deal with more than one topic at a time.
Come on, loydo can’t even deal with one topic effectively.
One of the justifications for the new rules is nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas, and a cut in nitrous oxide emissions was required for the Netherlands to meet their climate targets.
“phasing out coal-fired power generation starting in 2020.”
Which means they’ll start converting those coal plants to burn wood pellets. Basic same technology, same plants, more emitted CO2, more expensive, subsidized by the government.
Green energy? Netherlands subsidises shipping wood from US for fuel
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2019/10/green-energy-dutch-government-subsidises-shipping-wood-from-us-to-burn-in-power-plants/
Well if they could convince California to cut down some of their several million dead trees and convert them to fuel pellets, it would be a good thing all around.
That fuel is going to burn one way or another, and it’s just common sense to burn it where it will do some good instead of leaving it in place.
It would involve much lower transportation costs for California to burn the pellets itself.
Roger Knights:
It would involve much lower transportation costs for California to burn the pellets itself.
____________________________________
For California, the transportation costs for burning the pellets would be significantly lower.
Nevertheless – seems California rather would burn money than deviating from sacred environmental goals!
____________________________________
Conceded – burning money is illegal;
“So help them God! They cannot do otherwise, Amen!”
https://www.google.com/search?q=burning+money+is+illegal&oq=burning+money+is&aqs=chrome.
Government response should be:
Step 1: Order all heating and air conditioning to be switched off in Dutch court buildings.
Step 2: Wait.
🙂
I think the courts would judge that unfair. What they could not rule unfair would be for power and water (pumped) to be turned off for a time each day proportional to the time that unrenewable are not working. Proportional and fair, how very judicial!
Or just mandate 6 hour per day rolling blackouts. Give it a week or two then call new elections.
CO2 in the atmosphere is accepted to be about 406 ppm, out of which man’s contribution is about 3.7%, the rest, 96.3%, is by nature. So what will reducing
man caused CO2 emission, to whatever level, achieve?
TSI in the coldest part of the little ice age was 1363.5 w per meter 3 at the end of the ice age it was 1366.5 a difference of only 0.3% in other words the difference between life and death, we know co2 is historically speaking low, we also know we are going into a GSM if SC25 Is cooler than 24 which was cooler than 23,then it will be very cold and these clowns want to reduce c02 even more!
We also need the extra food from the CO2 natural fertiliser.
The theory is that man’s annual 4% emissions are cumulative so that all of the rise from about 280 ppm to now is due to man, i.e. a 45% increase or so.
The ruling is based ao on the duty of the Dutch government to protect the live and well being of its citizens.
Since reducing Dutch emissions will do nothing to the total world emissions, next step has to be to force major emitters to stop emitting.
Let’s see if we can have the judges make the government force eg China to close all their coal burning power stations in order to protect the Dutch citizens.
“The ruling is based ao on the duty of the Dutch government to protect the live and well being of its citizens.
Since reducing Dutch emissions will do nothing to the total world emissions, next step has to be to force major emitters to stop emitting.
Let’s see if we can have the judges make the government force eg China to close all their coal burning power stations in order to protect the Dutch citizens.”
Right: “Tell it to Xi and Modi” should be our riposte to shoulting alarmists.
For years now, the UK has been reducing emissions and importing electricity from the near continent. The imported electricity helps to make up lost home production from coal fired power stations that have closed and been demolished. Holland can reduce emissions by cutting electricity production, and that probably means lower exports to the UK. This could turn out to be a headache for the UK.
Indeed so. No Maasvlakte coal fired power to supply BritNed.
The Chinese and Indians are snickering behind their hands when they see the stupidity going on in the EU and other developed economies.
And note the only climatologist on the 13 member executive committee of the UNIPCC – is Panmao Zhai – who is the head of the Meteorological Organisation of —— China.
He must be having a laugh.
I would of liked to see the court ruling in detail,for instance did the government defend its 2030 position. If not it’s a conspiracy, if it’s the highest court in the land then theres no appeal through the courts, the UK used to be able to appeal the courts through the house of lords,I think now that is not a option ie supreme court, so do the Dutch have this option,? Would the Dutch government use this option? They could appeal via the eu but that seems unlikely. Jordan in a above post makes a good point this could well have implications for the UK power grid,the Dutch interconnector gives to the UK a 1gw of surplus n,European wind energy, maybe not such a big deal but it’s used nearly every day.probably wont effect the Dutch to much they will just grap from other European countries for now,it fits the EU agenda for removing self reliance from individual member states ,exactly what the 3rd Reich wanted a central hub redistributing commodities , we see this taking shape in the farming world across Europe, as for the Dutch taking to the streets ( or canals) I’d like to think so but doubt it.
The UK will go down the same route Michael Gove the ex environmental minister has already put into law similar practices, the Welsh are the first administrators to test the water with a raft of measures there hoping to bring into law within 2020,
All of the article is justified in the name of climate , the race to implement these measures is increasing at such a pace it’s going to be hard to challange before it’s to late. The climate propaganda is using disaster scenarios that might well happen not because of warming but of cooling ,except they dont mention cooling ,the ability to provide on tap power in a cooling climate is being removed,systematically across the eu, even the ability to collect and use wood as a fuel is being all but outlawed. If the GSM cooling occurs which I believe it will then these governments who are implementing such draconian measures will be guilty of genocide, there defence will be “the science is settled” we all know the real science on climate has been removed from the debate in politics and the MSM.
What will happen when the govt does not meet the target?
Will they be fined or locked up?
It might be a good thing if the greens were fined and locked up.
Just brainstorming but, I have seen a few references to community organizations related to the left and their quest to control green reforming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_organizing
It would not surprise me too much to see a court dictate that certain community groups be given the power to make decisions regarding how the local infrastructure will dismantle itself. Totally undemocratic, but that is what they are after.
That’s why the EU wants an army…
“What will happen when the govt does not meet the target?”
The government will move the goalposts.
China’s increased production of CO2 will erase the Netherlands tiny contribution in short order. The Netherlands government will bankrupt themselves for no good reason and the Chinese will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Western socialist politicians are SO stupid it is a wonder they can put one foot in front of the other. With fools like this running things, the Western Democracies are in serious trouble. They are operating in a delusional world and as a result their solutions are delusional and counterproductive/destructive
How much pain are ordinary citizens going to put up with from these delusional politicians? My guess is not much. When the politicians start bringing hardships to the citizens, the citizens will notice and will push back. We are seeing the beginnings of this now..
“Paul Homewood December 21, 2019 at 3:45 am
What will happen when the govt does not meet the target?”
Govn’t will meet their targets, and remember they are just targets, via “creative emissions accounting”. That’s all it is.
now thats funny!!
How to clog up your economy in one easy lesson.
Being an anti-EU Deplorable from Ireland it appears as if most responders to this post are from outside the EU. Consequently, there is a misunderstanding about the levels of general logic that can be relied upon for individual European states to lessen or overturn the suicidal anti-carbon energy path the EU is forcing on individual EU governments. Until the emergence of Greta Thunberg the level of propaganda in the broadcasting media was increasing on a consistent level year on year. Over the last twelve months however, it has escalated to norms associated with North Korea. Consequently, any would-be Deplorables wishing to investigate the new ‘science’ of climate will not be able to easily source contrary views other than the current alarmist consensus. It is wishful thinking to imagine that a Dutch Brexit will result in a rolling back of EU climate action. The supposedly logical UK Conservative party has steadfastly imposed EU climate law over the past ten years. Boris looks like being a climate zealot too.
The lady friend of Boris is certainly a climate zealot, that may constrain him, if he wished to diverge from the One True Path.
Did they also direct that the government make pi = 3
Laws like this are actually great. But they should include penalties that all elected officials and appointed ministers must resign if they don’t achieve the goals. Then we’ll start to get only goals that can actually be reached.
The courts made us do it. That is the strategy of politicians wishing to implement unpopular policies. In the US state of Missouri there was a long running debate over public school funding. Some districts in wealthier areas were better funded because they were able to raise more local tax. More state and federal money flowed to districts in poorer areas of the state. Student results in the wealthier were consistently better. Unable to convince the voters the leveling formula was mandated by the State Supreme Court. Politicians in favor any way claimed they had no choice. A massive increase in new funding flooded into Kansas City and St Louis as well as poorer rural districts.
New schools were built, world class instructors with big salaries were hired, even an Olympic style fencing program was set up in Kansas City. The money flowed like water. The results were negligible. Student outcomes did not level out or even improve in the districts receiving the new money. To our friends in the EU this is why we do not want to sign climate treaties. Even ones that are supposedly symbolic. We and you will find ourselves bound to economic ruin while our “partners” in these treaties carry on as before. Carry on making themselves wealthy on what we leave undone.
That result happened in Vermont and/or New Hampshire too, after tty leveled the school funding. Leftist response : down the memory hole. Just like their reaction to the failure of their massive public housing projects.
What are the odds they change the measurements and shift the goal posts, declare compliance, and label any skeptics as deniers?
https://www.rt.com/newsline/476482-switzerland-atomic-power-plant/
Switzerland shuts down a A power plant it’s not going to be replaced for like fore like.
A court governs the nation from a civil suit. Well, that’s democracy for ya. While they’re at unsubstantiated world dominance, why don’t they just declare China in gross violation, put their government up against a wall , and abolish the country?
Will government ministers be put in jail if they don’t succeed, which is quite likely.
Excellent. Popcorn time.
Seems like the Dutch law makers still haven’t learned the old maxim “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
They speak such good English in Holland that hopefully some businesses might consider leaving for another country that still mostly speaks reasonable English.
I may be the only one that recalls Climategate and all the articles declaring the end of the climate hysteria as the fraud Climategate purported it to be.
And now? Seems that the propagandists are not only stronger that ever but herding entire nations toward misery, chaos and catastrophe.
Was Napoleon stronger as his Grande Armée got closer to Moscow? Or was the Wehrmacht?
No. They were only closer to the inevitable, disastrous end.
The global warmers are fighting an unwinnable war, no matter how many battles they may win. China, India, Brazil, Indonesia… they will go no other way than fossil fuels because their people can’t afford any other way.
The sensible people need to get the honest-but-ill-informed among the misled Westerners to accept the futility of anti-CO2 actions, even as the rest of the world is rapidly increasing their use of fossil fuels.
+1000
Another energy mix equation although it’s probably to late for the USA to have any effect it does show were Europe is expecting some of its energy to come from, what could possibly go wrong!
https://www.rt.com/news/476129-us-defense-bill-nord-stream-sanctions/
Like all the other CC edicts this is unenforceable unless they limit fossil fuel imports and shut down energy plants. Rationing gas and diesel and shutting down power plants is the only way and that’s political and in some cases human suicide.
This really isn’t difficult, folks.
[1] eliminate migrants from the body of citizenry. More mouths ≡ more food, water, sewerage, gasoline, heating oil, energy consumption, medical care, national deficits and welfare. Fewer, the opposite.
[2] electrify trucking. Couldn’t be simpler. Just replace all those diesel trucks with long haul battery powered ones. Right? Probably just a field upgrade, anyway. (/sarc)
[3] subsidize the sweater-knitting industry — they’ll be needed en masse for the next item.
[4] mandate maximum 15°C indoor winter temperatures[], except for old-age homes … 20°C and hospitals.
[5] double-tax petrol, increasing the per-liter tax € 1 to begin with, and € 0.1/mo thereafter. ALL the money to subsidize electric car conversions. Right? (/sarc)
[6] shut down CO₂ producing power plants and ‘just buy’ electricity from France. Her nuclear is plenty powerful.
[7] Erect way more windmills, it being The Netherlands, and all that. Quaint. Prosaic. Not-so-Picturesque.
See?
No problem!
Probably could get down to –50% on 1990 emissions levels.
Just Saying,
-= GoatGuy ✓ =-
[1] We’ll get back to that.
[2] No need for long haul trucks, the country isn’t that big. Just ban non-electric trucks internally. Why stop at trucks. Get a bike or a rickshaw.
[3] Cheaper to get them from India.
[4] No need for this, just raise the cost of heating and this comes naturally.
[5] No ICE cars, no petrol needed. Easy. No fuel sales.
[6] Probably already in the works.
[7] More old-fashioned windmills. Everybody has the plastic ones.
[1] To cut the emissions 25%, it is going to take about a 25% cut in population. So reducing immigration is not going to do it. Kicking out all migrants since, say 1960, might work. But that is “not fair”. It would be better to encourage everyone else to leave, and a lot of them do want to leave.
The Dutch have been emigrating since forever. There are about 28 million people of Dutch heritage outside of the Netherlands. Even now. Why leave? Too crowded, “mentality of the people”, crime, noise pollution, pollution, …
https://voxeu.org/article/why-are-dutch-leaving-netherlands
Our calculations suggest that if all Dutch held extremely negative evaluations of the public domain, approximately 20% of the population (16 million inhabitants) would be inclined to leave the country.
Most leaving now are going to Belgium or Germany. Being in the EU, they at least have somewhere to go. Most refugees are not so lucky.
Why would the Dutch want to go to Belgium? The Belgians spray out the Flemish name of a street and the Flemish spray out the Belgian French name of a street. Unless they want to go for the tarts?
In my experience, many people think “things are better” somewhere else, the grass is greener etc. In my experience in fact, it does seem that way initially however, after a while it’s just the same sh!t, different colour.
I know several NZer’s who in their late 20’s just could not wait to get to Australia. Now, 20 years later, can’t wait to go back.
A case of swings and roundabouts.
Watching the EU including Germany (plant shutdowns) and Holland (recent court decision) committing slow economic suicide leaves me wondering just how long and how far their govts are willing to go before they decide to muster the nerve to start questioning the “science” behind this climate scare narrative.
I remain at a lose to understand why they feel it is good or necessary political policy to pander to the climate alarmists and eco-activists without seriously looking at and considering the scientific evidence that questions humanity’s role in the climate. Do they actually believe the scare narrative and consider it unquestionable?
As the slow economic suicide continues and starts taking its toll, EU govts and politicians will find themselves increasing between a rock and a hard place if uprisings against their policies, regulations and taxes grow and the situation becomes increasingly untenable. We in the U.S. should consider ourselves fortunate we are not parading down that road to the extent that the E.U. nations are, and Trump’s possible re-election next November would ensure that we continue holding back.
I cannot help but think that what is going on in Europe today is just a variation on the mistakes they made back in the 1st half of the 20th century with Naziism and Totalitarianism. Only this time the ideology that has been embraced is green in color, but it still has the potential to be equally destructive in the end if taken far enough.
At the root of all of this is a complete failure to understand the sound science behind the Earth’s climate and look at it objectively without leftist ideology to muddy the waters. Add in the false religion of believing that wind and solar energy can meaningfully displace fossil fuels and nuclear power in large amounts, and the foundations for a serious economic downfall are in the making. Russia’s Vladimir Putin must be looking at all of this while wringing his hands with glee and with the Euro sign shining in his eyes. If he is indeed funding (either directly or indirectly) the environmental and climate activist groups and organizations in Europe and the U.S., it is not hard to understand why.
The biggest threat to humanity is not climate change or the state of the Earth’s environment. The biggest threat to humanity is and always has been its own stupidity. We as a species are still a considerable ways from understanding that.
Putin isn’t behind this, Russia got out of the subversion game with the fall of the Soviet Union, only the State Dept., Soros and his Bankster pals push this. How do you think it was allowed to infect the political parties, universities, grade schools, and corporations, mass media and even the church unless it was being pushed from the top down. This is soft kill eugenics population reduction and concentration of wealth. It was the Banksters who promoted Communism from the get go, Karl Marx came from a family of corporate lawyers who owned private vineyards. His wife was the Baroness Joanna Von Westphalen, half sister to Ferdinand Von Westphalen the Prussian Interior Minister, responsible for running the Prussian Secret Police and prison system. Karl was Ferdinand’s number one informant. Who better to spy on the people trying to overthrow the system than the media appointed top Communist. Marx and Engels didn’t believe that the working class should be allowed to have families, he wanted the state to raise the children and the women to all be in the workforce. That’s why all the top Feminists are also Marxists. To quote George Bernard Shaw:
“Marx’s Kapital is not a treatise on socialism; it is a gerrymand against the bourgeoisie. It was supposed to be written for the working class, but the working man respects the bourgeoisie and wants to be a bourgeoisie. Marx never got a hold of him for a moment. It was the revolting sons of the bourgeoisie itself, like myself, that painted the flag red. The middle and upper classes are the revolutionary element in society. The proletariat is the conservative element.”
Actually Marx never got it wrong, he knew exactly that he was upper class and the working class were his enemies. What king of champion of the working class would take away their right to have families in an era when family was the only possession the working class had.
All this madness of shutting down industries helps drive up the price of Carbon Credits while creating more of them. You can’t put an end to Carbon Taxes and insane environmental regulations without driving the price of Carbon Credits to zero from over 25 Euros with the stroke of a pen. Carbon Credits are a Trillion dollar market, you turn their value to zero in a heartbeat, you kill the financial system. That’s how huge this madness has grown, and it has to be kept up or the Carbon Credit Bubble bursts and takes the system down anyway.
Putin is Innocent! Innocent, I tell you!!
And his tourists really visited Salisbury only to see the Cathedral and its impressive spire. Nothing to do with lethal dispersion of Novichok. Nothing a all.
And Russia is an utterly benign presence in the Crimea.
If Putin’s Russia is not trying to influence the West, then Putin and his team are not doing their job.
And, in the Russian system, that leads to lead poisoning . . . at about 1200 feet per second, at the back of the neck.
No Chris Hoff, I disagree; Putin is still playing ‘the Great Game’.
Auto
Sitting above it all are the Banksters riding their Carbon Credit Bubble to the death house. The more people they starve to death by shutting down modern farming, the more people they freeze to death by turning off the heat, the more people they prevent from purchasing the essentials of life by shutting down industry, the more Carbon Credits they can get commissions buying and selling at ever inflated prices. They’ll pay the politicians to get the troops out and suppress the rising tide of rebellion. If the government is threatened at the polls over this they’ll pay the troops directly to replace democracy. When the Carbon Credit Bubble finally pops they will demand the rest of humanity sacrifice all their savings to preserve their wealth and power. The Banksters are the real Communists hell bent on destroying Capitalism. George Bernard Shaw explains it best.
“Marx’s Kapital is not a treatise on socialism; it is a gerrymand against the bourgeoisie. It was supposed to be written for the working class, but the working man respects the bourgeoisie and wants to be a bourgeoisie. Marx never got a hold of him for a moment. It was the revolting sons of the bourgeoisie itself, like myself, that painted the flag red. The middle and upper classes are the revolutionary element in society. The proletariat is the conservative element.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide
Little known powers that governments can inact when theres a emergency, climate emergency, terrorist attack ect ect, eg under certain conditions a UK citizen can be imprisoned for up too 3 months without being brought before a magistrate, heavy law stuff,
https://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/policies/v.php?id=28009
The court should never have ruled the case. Only other treaty parties should have the ability to hold the Netherlands as a country responsible in an international court. The treaty does not seek to attribute rights to citizens of the treaty party states. And most definitely not for citizens to hold their government accountable. This is the taking over of politics by the judicial system and that is not what democratie is about.
How much reduction could they get by turning off the pumps that keep much of Holland dry land?
I guess we’ll just have to sit back and watch the fur fly… secure in the knowledge that it’s not our fur.
I love it when these people set goals that can’t possibly be reached. It’s all part of my theory that if we give them enough rope they will hang themselves. It also shows up just how much stomach the general public have for costly remedial measures.
Sit back and enjoy the fun.
M
There is a disturbing trend across the western world of having supreme courts tell governments what they can and can’t do, what they should do, what they must do, what the laws that they (democratically elected legislative assemblies and governments) actually mean – as opposed to what the legislators intended them to mean – etc. etc.
It makes me wonder why we bother to have elections any more.
They can ban hot coffee!
One way to make a big emissions cut in a short period at low cost to the state would be for it to forbid or highly tax the sale of cars that are not hybrids or pure BEVs. If this were to happen, the sales of BEVs there would skyrocket. Tesla could then sell its entire output there, and at profitable prices. (I suspect some of Tesla’s recent stock price runup is due to speculators thinking this way.)