Photo credit: dbvirago / Getty Images via Euractiv.com Excerpt from euractiv.com
Residents on a tiny island off the coast of Venezuela and NGO Greenpeace on Tuesday urged the Netherlands to take action on the climate crisis, at the opening of a trial in The Hague.
Bonaire – one of the Dutch territories worst-hit by the climate crisis, according to Greenpeace – demands through the courts that the Dutch government develops concrete plans to protect the island and reduce CO2 emissions to zero by 2040.The trial at The Hague is a first for Europe and follows an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July, which provides a legal interpretation of international climate law.
“Climate change is not a distant threat for us … Where we used to work, play, walk, or fish during the day, the heat is now often unbearable,” Bonaire resident and farmer Onnie Emerenciana told the court.
A 2022 study by Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit showed that as much as a fifth of Bonaire could be swallowed up by the sea by the end of the century.
Sporting a scarf in the Bonaire flag colours, Emerenciana warned that “parents say their children can no longer walk to school as they used to … Outdoor games have been replaced by indoor activities behind closed doors”.