Bonaire Climate Case
Climate Breakfast Seminar Series with Edward Brans.
This talk discusses the upcoming climate change liability case brought by Greenpeace against the State of the Netherlands, concerning residents of Bonaire, a Caribbean island and former Dutch colony. The same court that decided the landmark Urgenda case in 2015 will issue its decision on 28 January 2026. This decision is expected to feature detailed reasoning on key issues such as fair liability, climate modelling and science, adaptation obligations, and the political question doctrine. The KlimaSeniorinnen-case, including the relevant ECHR decision, is also expected to play a significant role in the court’s reasoning.
About the speaker
Edward Brans has been Professor of Sustainability and Environmental Liability since November 2020. Edward specializes in civil and administrative environmental liability law and has extensive experience in current sustainability topics, such as climate change liability, sustainable urban heat supply, flooding and shortages, CO2 capture and storage (CCS). He combines his appointment at the university with work as an attorney and in that capacity is (has been) involved in many climate, sustainability and environmental liability cases. Examples are the Urgenda-case, the case Greenpeace/Netherlands (Bonaire) and a case of four municipalities against Chemours for emitting PFAS.
On March 23, 2022, his oration took place. Its title is 'Climate Change Liability, Negative Emissions and Biodiversity Restoration'. The booklet is published by BoomJuridisch. An updated and English version is published in Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law 19 (2022).