The Dutch law allows for class action lawsuits where interests of the claimants are bundled. For example if a company would be poisoning local ground waters the

The Dutch law allows for class action lawsuits where interests of the claimants are bundled. For example if a company would be poisoning local ground waters the citizens should be able to enforce their rights in the court. In this case the company is changing atmosphere in a way that endangers Dutch residents due to the fact that portion of the population lives below the sea level and climate change is likely to cause rise in the sea level. > The court does not follow RDS’ argument that the claims of Milieudefensie et al. require decisions which go beyond the lawmaking function of the court. The court must decide on the claims of Milieudefensie et al.30 Assessing whether or not RDS has the alleged legal obligation and deciding on the claims based thereon is pre-eminently a task of the court. In the following assessment, the court interprets the unwritten standard of care from the applicable Book 6 Section 162 Dutch Civil Code on the basis of the relevant facts and circumstances, the best available science on dangerous climate change and how to manage it, and the widespread international consensus that human rights offer protection against the impacts of dangerous climate change and that companies must respect human rights. BTW - In the Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands exploitation of natural gas reserves started causing earthquakes. Even the house I was renting in a town next to Groningen had to be inspected due to the earthquakes. The exploitation will be stopped in 2022 due to the harm. The Groningen gas field is operated by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV (NAM), a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil with each company owning a 50% share. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_gas_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_gas_field > After protests in Groningen because of the increase in induced earthquakes, whose event count shows an exponential growth in time, [5] the Dutch government decided on 17 January 2014 to cut output from the gas field and pay those affected by the earthquake a compensation worth 1.2 billion Euro, spread over a period of 5 years. The ministry said production would be cut in 2014 and 2015 to 42.5 bcm (billion cubic metres) and in 2016 to 40 bcm.[6] > The State Supervision of Mines has brought forward that the production level should be cut back to 30 bcm to avoid the more severe quakes. Although it is technically possible to reduce Groningen's output to this level and still meet domestic demand, the ministry keeps production high (currently[when?] 39.4 bcm per year). Groningen officials are not satisfied with the measures. As of January 2015, no houses have been reinforced, nothing has been done about many seriously damaged buildings, and the risk of severe quakes, possibly resulting in collapsed buildings, injuries and death, is still too high.[7][8] In June 2016, the Netherlands' National Mines Inspectorate advised the Dutch Government to reduce production even further to 24 bcm per year.[9] On 23 September 2016 Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed that gas extraction from the northern Groningen gas field will be held at 24 bcm per year for the coming five years.[10] > On March 29, 2018 the government announced it would shut down the gas extraction entirely by 2030 for safety reasons.[11][12] > In September 2019, the Dutch government announced a further acceleration of the decommissioning of the field, stopping all regular production in 2022.