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Success in climate: complaining or asking?

Success with climate complaints or requests

Even before the date of the entry week was known, the Austrian people's climate petition had reached over 114.000 signatures, with a total of 380.590 supporters in the final. Due to the Greens' participation in the government, some of the demands have already been included in the government program. Now it is time to wait and see whether the legislature actually shows serious ecological will. And the democratic instrument of popular petition is again under scrutiny.

Victory in the Netherlands

A court ruling in the Netherlands shows that it can also be done much more effectively: it is the most important court ruling against climate change worldwide to date. What is it about The Supreme Court, the High Council, recently upheld an earlier court ruling in The Hague that by the end of 2020, the Netherlands would have to reduce CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent compared to 1990 levels - a much more severe reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases than before. In this way, the judges ultimately agree with the Urgenda environmental group, which had already sued in 2015. The government had revised the ruling of the lower courts for principled reasons. She did not want the judiciary to dictate political priorities. The judges rejected this, the government now wants to abide by the judgment.

Over 5.000 co-plaintiffs in Austria

As reported, Greenpeace Austria also beats this notch: The focus of the class action lawsuit is on unfair preference for climate-damaging air travel over rail. While international rail traffic has to pay sales tax, international flights are exempt. The same applies to the kerosene tax: domestic flights are exempt from this - joints are 31x more harmful than the climate-friendly train. And the initiative of the environmental organization was well received and supporters: At the beginning of the year there were already over 5.000 plaintiffsAttached to the complaint to the Constitutional Court. The domestic Greenpeace climate complaint also sets international standards: the most successful climate complaint from the Netherlands to date has around 900 plaintiffsUnited inside.

Photo / Video: Greenpeace | Astrid Schwab.

Written by Helmut Melzer

As a long-time journalist, I asked myself what would actually make sense from a journalistic point of view. You can see my answer here: Option. Showing alternatives in an idealistic way - for positive developments in our society.
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