Milieudefensie and more than 30,000 co-plaintiffs take ING to court

28 March 2025, Amsterdam – Milieudefensie/Friends of the Earth Netherlands, together with 30,000 co-plaintiffs, starts a lawsuit against ING to bring the bank’s climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement. The summons has been presented at the bank’s head quarters in Amsterdam, where hundreds of concerned people turned up to show their support for the lawsuit. Donald Pols, director of Milieudefensie: “Today we show that we will no longer idly sit by and watch how ING jeopardises the future of our children and grandchildren. ING must cease its participation in making the climate crisis worse by knowingly investing billions in polluting companies.”

This summons initiates the lawsuit against ING in which Milieudefensie is demanding that ING halves its emissions in 2030 and ceases financing companies that still develop new oil and gas projects.

Necessary step
Milieudefensie has gathered almost 10,000 pages of evidence that substantiate the harmful effects of ING’s policy. Winnie Oussoren, chairperson of Young Friends of the Earth NL, says: "Banks have a great responsibility in the energy transition. They can choose whether to finance an oil platform or a wind turbine, which will determine for decades where our energy comes from. Now is the time for ING to start making the right choices for our future."

Nicky van Dijk, research coordinator, adds: “ING's own annual report states that ING is currently financing fossil fuel energy with 30 billion euros. This already has a disastrous effect on people living in the Global South who already have to deal with the consequences of the climate crisis.” 

The lawsuit will be conducted by the team of lawyer Roger Cox of Paulussen Advocaten. Cox also represented Milieudefensie in its lawsuit against Shell. Cox: “The foundation that our demands are built on are strong and in line with the latest climate science insights. I am convinced that we can show the court that this is a matter of vital importance.”

Milieudefensie and Paulussen Advocaten expect that this lawsuit will create a precedent for other financial institutions to take their responsibility in the climate crisis seriously and to take concrete action.