The Dutch government will appeal against a district court ruling ordering it to cut greenhouse gases emissions faster than currently planned, Dutch daily Trouw reported on Tuesday.
The government will announce its decision to contest the June 24 ruling later on Tuesday, the paper said, citing anonymous sources in The Hague.
The ruling, a rare intervention by the judiciary in the global warming debate, is being closely watched by policy makers and environmentalists as a legal precedent.
It comes as the Netherlands, a laggard among developed countries in cutting emissions after reducing spending on alternative energy during the financial crisis, used record amounts of coal in the first five months of this year.
A judge in The Hague ordered the state to ensure that the country's emissions fall 25 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020.
Based on current government policy, the Netherlands will achieve a reduction of 17 percent at most in 2020, which is below a norm of 25-40 percent for developed countries, a summary of the ruling said.
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