Environmental activist Marjan Minnesma has died. That reports Urgenda, the organization with which Minnesma made history in 2015 by winning the first climate lawsuit against the government. That lawsuit became the starting point for dozens of climate cases worldwide. Minnesma died of breast cancer and was 59 years old.
“She was a source of inspiration for the entire sustainability world,” writes Urgenda. “With Marjan we lose an enterprising visionary who, with boundless energy, vision and passion, has successfully dedicated her life to the energy transition, better climate policy and making agriculture more sustainable.”
Urgenda reports that Minnesma has been suffering from cancer since 2022. She kept this private as much as possible “to continue working on a cleaner and healthier world for as long as possible […] the end came faster for her than expected and hoped.”
After Minnesma heard in 2024 that she could no longer be cured, she gave interviews to Nieuwsuur and de Volkskrantunder the condition that it would not be broadcast and published until after her death.
Minnesma said to Nieuwsuur about the climate case in 2015: “We received phone calls from all over the world. People crying, saying: ‘Now I have hope again and I dare to move on.'” de Volkskrant she said: “I have actually lived not one but two or three lives.”
Urgenda has one condolence register opened.
This message is still being supplemented.
