THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A Dutch court ordered the government Wednesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions to help fight global warming.
The ruling came in a case filed by hundreds of concerned citizens, which experts said could pave the way for similar legal battles around the world.
Climate activists in a packed courtroom in The Hague broke into cheers as Presiding Judge Hans Hofhuis told Dutch authorities to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent by 2020 from benchmark 1990 levels.
The country currently is on track for a 17 percent reduction, and it is not clear what it would have to do to achieve the further cut.
Environmentalists hailed the ruling as a victory in efforts to push governments to take more action to tackle global warming.
"The verdict is a milestone in the history of climate legislation, because it is the first time that a government was ordered to raise its climate ambition by a court," said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe. "We hope this kind of legal action will be replicated in Europe and around the world."
Greenpeace called the Dutch ruling "a game-changer in the fight against climate change."
The Dutch case may have already helped spur environmentalists in other countries into legal action.
Activists said a similar case is on its way in Belgium. In Norway, a coalition of nongovernment groups is working on a case challenging their government's licensing of new oil blocks in the Arctic, saying it violates the constitutional obligation to protect the climate.
"This is a great victory. The judge said exactly what we wanted and had the courage and wisdom to say to the government 'you have a duty of care toward your citizens,'" said Marjan Minnesma, the director of Urgenda, the nongovernment group that filed the civil case.
Minnesma said Urgenda is ready to share details of its case with activists in other countries, saving them time and money in preparing the legal arguments.
The ruling came in the same month that Pope Francis released an encyclical urging nations to quickly overhaul their economies and cut emissions and save the Earth. France also will host a key United Nations conference later this year in Paris, where it's hoped a worldwide accord to fight global warming will be signed.
The Dutch plaintiffs argued -- and the court agreed -- that the government has a legal obligation to protect its people against looming dangers, including the effects of climate change on the low-lying country. Large areas of the Netherlands are below sea level and are vulnerable to rising sea levels blamed on global warming.
The Dutch government, which can appeal, said it was studying the ruling.
Environment Minister Wilma Mansveld said the government and Urgenda "share the same goal. We just hold different opinions regarding the manner in which to attain this goal."
Mansveld said the Dutch are working toward European Union greenhouse targets -- cutting emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020, from 1990 levels.
But judges said they want more action from the minister.
"The state must do more to avert the imminent danger caused by climate change, also in view of its duty of care to protect and improve the living environment," read a statement from the court.
To avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change, countries around the world have agreed that global temperatures should stay below a 3.6 Fahrenheit rise compared with pre-industrial times.
A U.N. climate science panel has stated that to have a two-thirds chance of staying below that mark the world must cut emissions by 40 percent to 70 percent by 2050.
The Netherlands is a country with vast natural gas reserves. It lags behind many of its European neighbors in the amount of energy it consumes from clean, renewable sources like wind or solar power.
A Section on 06/25/2015