LEGAL ACTIONS
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Legal Actions
Thank you for supporting our legal actions. There are multiple active legal cases all over the world which enable you to support the fight against tree massacre and the burning of biomass and send dirty companies, politicians, and city or county council members a clear message: Stop ruining our planet!
EU Biomass Legal Case (active)
EUBiomassLegalCase
On March 4th, 2019, plaintiffs from six countries filed suit against the European Union in the European General Court in Luxembourg to challenge the treatment of forest biomass as a renewable fuel in the European Union’s 2018 revised Renewable Energy Directive (known as RED II) which will accelerate widespread forest devastation and significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions by not counting CO2 emissions from burning wood fuels. Read the main arguments here:
https://www.biomassmurder.org/docs/2019-08-00-eu-biomass-legal-case-main-arguments-english.pdf
Direct Concerns:
- The renewable energy targets and the legal obligations to meet them;
- The definition of renewable energy, such that it includes biomass;
- The definitions of biomass to include forest biomass, and forest biomass to include stems and stumps (i.e. whole trees);
- The method of calculating the share of energy produced from renewable sources is mandatory, meaning Member States have no discretion to omit energy produced from forest biomass from this calculation;
- The GHG criteria are mandatory, such that Member States have no
discretion to account for biogenic emissions when calculating the impact of the use of forest biomass;
- The sustainability criteria in relation to biofuels and bioliquids produced
from forest biomass are a regulatory ceiling, such that
- Member States cannot adopt more protective sustainability criteria;
- There are no possible sustainability criteria for biomass fuels that could
obviate the harm such that the discretion notionally given to Member States in relation to this use of forest biomass is irrelevant (something
not changed just by the discretion a Member State has in relation to financial incentives);
- Member States cannot impose additional LULUCF criteria even the most
onerous of which is inadequate to prevent harm. The Member States thus have no relevant discretion over the land-use change aspects of the biomass industry.
EU Peoples Climate Case (active)
The People’s Climate Case is the litigation action initiated by 10 families from Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Romania, Kenya, Fiji, and the Saami Youth Association Sáminuorra. Their homes, livelihoods, traditional family occupation and culture are affected by climate change and they are taking the EU institutions to court to protect their fundamental rights and to prevent dangerous climate change. Check out the documentation page for more information...
NL PAS Legal Case (victory)
Excess nitrogen pollutes air, soil and water, increases greenhouse gas emissions, and impacts biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Environmental policy measures have been taken to reduce the impacts of nitrogen on ecosystems and human health. However, while OECD nitrogen emissions have been reduced, the concentrations of nitrogen forms in air, soil and water still remain much too high overall. The Mobilisation for the Environment organization dragged the Dutch Government to court and won the case,
It was total victory which brought havoc and panic to those who are destroying our environment. The result of the court case is that
18.000 major projects are on hold and 3000 permits for airports, highways, but also biomass plants are under review and elligible for revocation. The Mobilisation for the Environment has assisted us in our case against the biomass plant in Arnhem (the Netherlands). We in turn will provide the Mobilisation for the Environment with any support they require with the other biomass plant lawsuits.
Want to help too? Check out our support page.
NL High Court Urgenda Climate Case (victory)
The 2015 Urgenda Climate Case against the Dutch Government was the first in the world in which citizens established that their government has a legal duty to prevent dangerous climate change. On 24 June 2015, the District Court of The Hague ruled the government must cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by the end of 2020 (compared to 1990 levels). The ruling required the government to immediately take more effective action on climate change.
The case was upheld by the Court of Appeal on 9 October 2018. Following this judgement the State appealed to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country. Urgenda presented 40 solutions to solve climate change and we are working very hard to promote those solutions on a national and international level. We have offered Urgenda our full assistance and we are very happy they are promoting our video.
Want to help too? Check out our support page.
ICC Biomass Legal Case (upcoming)
The board members representing the biomassmurder.org have threatened to take their Provincial Executives to the International Criminal Court on the day the biomass power plant will become active (oktober 2019). We have informed the county members and the Provincial Executives extensively on the desastrous effects on human health, the environment, climate change and their legal obligations. The King's commissioner stated they would not comply so immidiate international action will follow preceding legal actions.
NL Biomass Legal Case Veolia (upcoming)
Without any consultation with local residents, the Province of Gelderland has given a permit for the construction of a biomass power plant on Kleefse Waard in Arnhem. It will run on 76 million euros of RED subsidies and will open in 2019.
The permits for the Arnhem power plant has been issued based on incorrect or outdated data on several points. The emissions have been found to be toxic and harmful according to extensive studies.
Besides the health risks we will not accept that Veolia, a billion euro international company will wreck the environment by burning our forests while we as a society pay with our taxes to do so. Those subsidies are intended for actual sustainable solutions (wind, solar,wave and innovation).
We have provided the county with excellent into depth information including an animation video and our extensive research, presented 6000 emails from concerned citizens asking them to revoke the permits and gave a speech explaining their legal obligation to revoke the permits and presented 45 solutions as an alternative to burning biomass. As the county has declared they will not stop the opening we are forced to start national and international campagnes and protest to warn them that we will not tollerate this and will do anything in our power to stop it. Besides the campagnes and protests supported by 200 national and international organizations we are preparing for legal actions. Besides dragging the county to court we will directly target politicians. Want to help? Check out our support page.
NL Biomass Legal Case Vattenfall (upcoming)
Over 5,500 local residents, in a village of less than 30,000, and citizens of nearby situated Amsterdam city districts have signed a petition against building the largest biomass heating plant in The Netherlands. The local population does not want a polluting biomass- energyplant imposed on their community. The emission of harmful particulate matter will affect mostly young children, the elderly and people with asthma and other chronic health conditions. The plant will also emit enormous amounts of C02 directly into the atmosphere, even more CO2 than burning coal.
Vattenfall, another billion euro international company continues to make bland promises about sourcing ‘sustainable biomass’ but the company admits it has no credible idea where its wood pellets will actually be sourced from. Large biomass plants elsewhere have ended up burning pellets sourced from the clearcutting of highly biodiverse forests in the Southern US, British Colombia and elsewhere. Meanwhile the Amsterdam City council wrote a letter to the Eric Wiebes, Minister for economic affairs, expressing concerns about the billions of national subsidies reserved for burning biomass. There seems to be almost zero political and popular support for burning biomass. However Vattenfall is determined to push through and continue to apply for the permit and the necessary subsidies required for the construction of the plant. Citizens from Diemen have urged the Swedisch government and its people to end this disaster. In the mean time we will prepare for the legal battle which is most likely to come. Want to help? Check out our support page.
SEND AN EMAIL TO END THE BURNING OF BIOMASS
Send an e-mail to the politicians in the Netherlands. They will decide in the coming month how to procede with the opening of new biomass plants.
SUPPORT OUR LEGAL ACTION TO END THE BURNING OF BIOMASS
Support our legal actions to fight permits for biomass installations and politicians who are willingly destroying lives & our earth in favor of billion dollar companies.
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