A court of appeals in The Hague on Tuesday upheld a historic legal order that requires the Dutch government to make “a reduction obligation of at least 25% from the emissions in 1990 by end-2020” because that is within the “State’s duty of care.”

The court cited Article 2 and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to life and right to home and private life:

In short, the State has a positive obligation to protect the lives of citizens within its jurisdiction under Article 2 ECHR, while Article 8 ECHR creates the obligation to protect the right to home and private life. This obligation applies to all activities, public and non-public, which could endanger the rights protected in these articles, and certainly in the face of industrial activities which by their very nature are dangerous. If the government knows that there is a real and imminent threat, the State must take precautionary measures to prevent infringement as far as possible. In light of this, the Court shall assess the asserted (imminent) climate dangers.

The Dutch Urgenda Foundation brought the claim against the Netherlands on behalf of 900 Dutch citizens in 2015. The Dutch government announced earlier this year that they will attempt to reduce emission by 49 percent by 2030.