Utrecht Becomes Third Dutch City to Declare a State of Climate Emergency

The news came from Utrecht last night that the city’s municipality has declared a state of climate emergency.

What’s going on here and what’s the emergency?

A motion was passed by the Party for the Animals (PvdD) which gained the majority in the city council. This motion was to rally everyone behind efforts to limit global warming.

Utrecht is the third city in the Netherlands to do, following Amsterdam and Haarlem. Globally, international cities like London, Paris, and Sydney have already declared a state of emergency.

Maarten van Heuven, the council member for PvdD, told NOS that efforts should be made towards transitioning to more sustainable energy, increasing the biodiversity of the country, encouraging diets which are not meat-based, and increasing the accessibility and ease-of-use of public transport (you hear that NS?). He was happy that the motion was passed with a clear majority, with a total of 33 out of 45 seats. GroenLinks, Denk, Student and Starter, PvdA (different from the PvdD! I know, I got confused too), and D66 all voted in favor of the motion.

Their efforts in The Hague have been relentless and will hopefully be realized soon, because we may well be running out of time. Have you been taking steps individually to transition into a more sustainable lifestyle? What have they been? Let us know in the comments below!

Feat Image: Jasmin Sessler/Pixabay
Kavana Desai
Kavana Desaihttps://medium.com/@kavanadesai
Coping with the aftermath of her 3-year stint in the Netherlands, Kavana is a writer, content creator and editor for DutchReview. Hailing from India, she frequently blogs about the Netherlands, being Indian in the Netherlands, and everything in between. She envisions herself to one day be the youngest person to win that Nobel Prize for Literature (she is also not very humble but welcomes only constructive criticism). In the meantime, she fills her days with writing for DutchReview, writing her master's thesis on art theft, and writing fiction that will hopefully see the light of day soon.

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