Europe's top human rights court ruled yesterday that the Swiss government violated the human rights of its citizens by not doing enough to combat climate change, a decision that will set a precedent for future climate lawsuits.
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights, in favor of the more than 2000 Swiss women who brought the case, is expected to reflect court decisions across Europe and beyond, and encourage more communities to bring climate cases against governments.
However, in an apparent indication of the complexity of the growing wave of climate litigation, the Court dismissed two more climate-related cases on procedural grounds. One of them was launched by a group of six young people from Portugal against 32 European governments, while the other was launched by the former mayor of a French coastal city.
Swiss women, known as KlimaSeniorinen (Elderly Women for Climate Protection) and all over the age of 64, claim that their government's failure to act on climate change has put them at risk of dying during heat waves. They claimed that due to their gender and age, they are particularly vulnerable to such consequences of climate change.
Bruna Molinari, who is in her 80s and suffers from asthma, is one of the women who presented the case before the Court last year. "As a grandmother and mother, I believe that my grandchildren and children have the right to a better climate than the one we have," she said.
The group had its first inaugural meeting in August 2016, when there were only 40 members.
In her ruling, the president of the court, Siofra O'Leary, stated that the Swiss government had failed to meet its targets for reducing harmful gas emissions and had not established a national carbon budget.
"It is clear that future generations are likely to bear an increasingly serious burden of the consequences of current failures and omissions in the fight against climate change," said O Liri.
One of the leaders of the KlimaSeniorine group, Rosemarie Wildler Valti, told Reuters that she was not yet fully aware of the full scale of the decision. "We persistently ask the lawyers if it is okay. And they tell us that's the most we could get. The greatest possible victory”.
The Swiss Federal Cabinet for Justice, which represented the Swiss government in court, announced that "together with the authorities, they will analyze the verdict and see what measures Switzerland will take in the future."
A growing number of climate-related cases brought by citizens against governments, which rely on human rights, are before the court in Strasbourg, Reuters points out.
The judgment in the case of Switzerland, against which there is no right of appeal and which will have international repercussions by establishing a binding legal precedent for all 46 countries that are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights.
If Switzerland does not change its policies, further legal proceedings at the national level could follow and courts could impose fines, Lucy Maxwell, one of the directors of the non-profit Climate Litigation Network, told Reuters.
Switzerland has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 percent from 50 levels by 1990. Bern proposed stronger measures to meet the target, but voters rejected them in a 2021 referendum as too burdensome.
Yesterday's decision may also affect future rulings at the Strasbourg court, including a lawsuit against the Norwegian government alleging it violated human rights by issuing new licenses for oil and gas exploration in the Barents Sea after 2035.
Courts in Australia, Brazil, Peru and South Korea are hearing human rights-related climate cases. In a ruling last month, India's Supreme Court found that citizens have the right to be freed from the harmful effects of climate change.
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