Subsuit delivered, climate case of Milieudefensie against ING started

The summons is delivered, and with that a new, large climate shop has officially started. On Friday morning, the leaders of Milieudefensie, accompanied by a procession of sympathizers, officially handed over the procedural document at the headquarters of ING, the bank of which Milieudefensie states that its climate policy is far below par and thus contributes to the worsening of the climate crisis.

According to Milieudefensie, hundreds of supporters were walking with it. In addition to Milieudefensie, there are 30,000 other co-requirements: all individuals.

For the gourmets: here the summons Self, in which you can read exactly why Milieudefensie is concerned behind ING, what Milieudefensie ING all reproaches, and what the environmental organization demands from the largest bank in the Netherlands. Please note: they are a total of 351 pages, and much of it is complicated legal fare. But it is nevertheless really advisable to go through, because the legal structure of Milieudefensie-also set up this time by lawyer Roger Cox, who also set up the Shell case-was interrupted.

For those who have less time: in the core, Milieudefensie states that ING also causes the climate crisis by continuing to finance large polluters. Milieudefensie therefore consistently calls ING « banker of the climate crisis. » The organization demands that ING halves its emissions in 2030 and stops financing companies that start new oil and gas projects.

Milieudefensie director Donald Pols explained to my colleague Eva Smal two months ago and I outline why his organization is taking on his organization. You can do that interview read back here.

‘No longer watch’

At the headquarters of ING Friday morning he said in a speech to the collected group of sympathizers: « We show today that we are no longer watching how ING endangers the future of our children and grandchildren. ING must stop knowingly and knowingly to worse the climate crisis by putting billions in polluting companies. »

ING himself responded with a press release In the step. The head of business ethics, Arnaud Cohen Stuart, says: « This final step of Milieudefensie is not unexpected – they have announced their plans more than a year ago. We have not yet passed their claims, but so far they have been unrealistic and unreasonable. We share the concern about the climate, but differ. »

ING also refers to the fact that an important, independent organization that checks the climate policy of large companies, the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) this week has concluded that ING’s climate policy is in line with the Paris climate agreement – me written Thursday about that. Milieudefensie nevertheless places his doubts about this.

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