Far from the Dubai conference on climate change, which ends this week in the country of oil, the verdict did not go unnoticed: on November 30, the very day of the opening of this COP28, the Belgian state was convicted by a Brussels court for “climate inaction”. Justice ordered it to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990 and demanded that environmental data from 2022, 2023 and 2024 indeed confirm this direction, without which fines could be imposed on him.
This decision by the Brussels Court of Appeal is unique in the world of the fight against climate change. A group of 58,000 citizens, representing the entire diversity of Belgian society, is in fact at the origin of this trial, which began in 2014. By winning their case, nine years later, they thus reinforce the idea that “justice can now become a formidable lever in the fight against global warming”, while maintaining this fight for the climate within the framework of the rule of law, thus far from the authoritarian temptations which animate certain radical environmental movements, anxious about the inertia of governments, believes the president of the group, called L’affaires climat, Serge de Gheldere. The duty met him a few days ago in the European capital.
“This judgment provides a great opportunity for the Belgian executive and legislative powers to act,” he explains. Justice is one of the three pillars of democracy, and it would be embarrassing for the Belgian government not to respect the verdict, which would send a worrying signal about its level of respect for this same democracy. »
In essence, the Brussels Court of Appeal ruled at the end of November that the Belgian federal government, like the regional governments of Flanders – the Dutch-speaking region of the country – and Brussels, had violated two articles of the Belgian convention on human rights. the person by not sufficiently reducing GHG production in recent years, thus threatening the life, existence and freedoms of its citizens. The French-speaking region of Wallonia, after reducing the production of these gases by 38.5% in 2020, but also having adopted major reduction measures in its climate plan, escapes sanctions.
For the others, the court is demanding a radical reduction in GHGs within the next seven years by making the 55% objective a now legal obligation. The climate affair demanded 61%. For comparison, Canada has set a purely theoretical reduction target of 40% below 2005 levels for 2030.
Justice also gives Belgium one year to comply with this judgment and, above all, to bring its climate action plans in line with this new obligation. However, it reserved its decision on a request made by L’affaires climat to impose penalties on governments of one million euros per month of delay in meeting the reduction objective, leaving it to the State to explain its adaptation plan and its reduction figures by 2024 before imposing such fines.
“Belgium now becomes the second country, after the Netherlands, where there is an injunction to reduce GHGs to a specific level,” says Serge de Gheldere, “but also one of the rare countries to have recognized citizens as stakeholders in a trial on the climate issue. It is a framework that would benefit from becoming a model, because each advance in climate litigation before the courts thus becomes a stepping stone for subsequent cases, of which we hope will be numerous. The only antidote to inertia is joint action on a large scale for the climate, as we did for the COVID vaccine or as we do in the face of a war, like that in Ukraine. »
As soon as the judgment was released, the Brussels Minister of Climate, Alain Maron, of the Belgian environmentalist party, welcomed the decision of the Court of Appeal, believing that it “consolidates the fight led by the region” of the crucial for the fight against climate change, he said in a press release. Conversely, the Flemish Minister of the Environment, Zuhal Demir, member of the nationalist party of Flanders, said she did not accept the conviction, denouncing a judgment of a political nature. She indicated on the
” Policy ? There is nothing political in this judgment,” proclaims Serge de Gheldere, who recalls that the Court of Appeal has just imposed a target, yes, but not the means or the measures to take to achieve it. “The separation of powers is well respected. It is Parliament and the government which must now organize themselves to implement this judgment. It is up to them to show that the decarbonization of the economy can become a positive project, regardless of where politicians are located on the political spectrum. Everyone can find what they’re looking for there. Socialists, by providing solutions to fuel poverty or by promoting public transport, for example; the liberals, talking about green innovation as a driver of economic development and promotion of Belgium on a global scale. As for far-right, populist and xenophobic parties, they could even make the fight against climate change an argument for reducing immigration. »
But more than anything, in the climate of cynicism which accompanied the holding of COP28 in Dubai in recent days, Belgium has just been offered by the courts an opportunity to move from good intentions to action, the only defense against anger and the radicalization of the environmentalists who are grumbling, according to the president of L’affaires climat.
“Young people are fed up with conferences and treaties that governments sign that lead nowhere or give mixed results,” he said. Their anger is legitimate and it will only subside when they see concrete projects appearing. » And he adds: “This is not the first time that justice, as a democratic mechanism provided for in our societies, is the basis of social progress and political reforms. We saw it with asbestos, with tobacco, with civil rights, where trials and judgments preceded lasting and necessary changes. Belgium now has a judgment in hand which gives it the opportunity to add climate to this list. »