On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights will listen to an exceptional lawsuit filed by six young individuals. They are accusing 32 European countries of not taking sufficient action to address the climate crisis caused by humans.
The young people from Portugal, who are between 11 and 24 years old, believe that they are most affected by climate change. They want to ask the court to make these countries take quick and strong action to combat climate change.
This is the first time a climate case has been brought to the European Court of Human Rights. It is the biggest out of three climate lawsuits that the court is currently handling.
There is a lot to gain or lose. If this case is won, countries would have to quickly increase their efforts to combat climate change. It would also strengthen other climate-related lawsuits globally, especially those claiming that countries have a responsibility to protect people from the effects of climate change.
If the court decides against the people making the claim, it could harm other claims related to climate.
Gearóid Ó Cuinn, the director of Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), who has been supporting the claimants’ case, described it as a David and Goliath situation that is extraordinary in its size and potential consequences.
“He said to CNN that more states than ever before have had to protect themselves in front of any place in the world. ”
The process leading up to Wednesday’s hearing started six years ago. Catarina Mota, one of the people making a claim, said that everything began in 2017 with the fires.
Destructive wildfires burned a large area of land in Portugal, destroying 500,000 hectares, and causing the unfortunate death of over 100 individuals in that year. When the fires started to move closer to where Mota lived, they had to close down her school and other schools nearby. “She said the smoke was all around,” she told CNN.
The disaster caused the lawsuit to happen. Mota began talking to her friend and fellow claimant, Cláudia Duarte Agostinho. Together with the help of GLAN, they found four more people who were also affected by the fires in 2017.
The group argues that climate change, especially the intense heat waves in Portugal, continue to affect people’s lives even after the fires. They say these periods of time make it difficult to go outside, focus on schoolwork, sleep, and even breathe for some people. It also affects their mental health.
We are concerned about what will happen to us in the future. “Why wouldn’t we be afraid. ” said André dos Santos Oliviera, who is 15 years old.
The legal case was started in 2020 and has been financed mainly by many people contributing money online. The European Court of Human Rights moved the case quickly because it was important and involved many people being accused.
This Wednesday, the people making the claim will say that not dealing with the growing climate crisis is violating their basic rights, such as the right to live and have a family, to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated unfairly because of their age.
They want the court to decide that countries that contribute to the climate crisis must not only protect their own citizens but also people in other countries.
They want 32 countries, including 27 European Union countries, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, to greatly reduce the pollution that causes global warming. They also want companies based in these countries to reduce emissions throughout their entire supply chains.
The countries being sued are saying that none of the people making the claims have proven that they have been seriously harmed by climate change.
The Greek government, after a tough summer of extreme heat, fires, and storms, said that they don’t think climate change has directly caused any harm to people or their health.
The court case could have different outcomes.
The court might reject the claim because of procedural issues or because it doesn’t have the authority to hear the case.
If it gets through the legal steps, the court may decide that states are not required to protect human rights in regards to climate change. Gerrard is the director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
Or, the court might decide in favor of the people making the claims. Ó Cuinn explained to CNN that the judgment would have a similar impact as a legally binding treaty, making it necessary for all 32 countries to speed up their efforts to address climate change.
Gerrard said to CNN that this decision could be very important and could encourage more climate cases in Europe and other regions.
The lawsuit is the biggest out of three cases that are currently being heard in court. All three cases are about how countries should take care of their people and their responsibilities related to climate change.
In March, the court listened to the other two. Over 2,000 older women from Switzerland said that climate change had made heat waves worse and affected their health and lives. A French mayor also said that France not doing anything about climate change was a violation of his human rights.
We don’t know if the courts will decide all the claims at once, but usually it takes nine to 18 months from the hearing to the judgment, according to Gerry Liston, a senior lawyer at GLAN.
As the weather gets more extreme, more and more people are using lawsuits to try and make the government take action on climate change. This is happening because countries have not been doing enough to reduce pollution and prevent dangerous levels of global warming.
Even if we follow current climate policies, the world will still become more than 2. 5 degrees Celsius warmer by the end of the century compared to before industries were developed. The planet has already gotten hotter by about 1. 2 degrees, and we can see the effects. This year has seen extremely hot weather, very large wildfires, and really bad floods.
Right now, countries are only doing the bare minimum, according to Liston from GLAN. If every nation keeps doing the bare minimum, we will continue on a very disastrous path.
That’s why individuals have been seeking help from the courts. According to the Sabin Center, there are over 2,400 climate lawsuits worldwide, and new ones are being filed every week.
Catherine Higham, who runs the Climate Change Laws of the World project at the London School of Economics, explained that climate litigation is a valuable tool. “But I think it’s just one part of the puzzle,” she told CNN.
Advocacy and attending climate conferences like the upcoming United Nations COP28 summit in Dubai are very important, she said.
The Portuguese claimants will have to wait anxiously for the court’s decision. Even if the claim doesn’t go their way, Mota said, at least it will make people pay attention and take notice.
However, she also said, “We really want things to turn out well. ”