An international court in France ruled on Tuesday that Switzerland’s failure to adequately deal with the climate crisis is a human rights violation, in a landmark climate decision that could have ripple effects around the world.
The European Court of Human Rights sided with more than 2,000 Swiss members of Senior Women for Climate Protection, who also sought similar measures in a controversial court case in which a French mayor who similarly sought stronger government action on climate change was also defeated.
The lawyers had hoped that the Strasbourg court would find that national governments have a duty to ensure that global warming does not exceed pre-industrial levels by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. 19-year-od Sofia Oliveira, one of the Portuguese plaintiffs, said:
I really hoped that we would win against all the countries, so obviously I’m disappointed that this didn’t happen. But the most important thing is that the Court has said in the Swiss women’s case that governments must cut their emissions more to protect human rights. So, their win is a win for us, too, and a win for everyone!
Referring to the fundamental Convention on Human Rights, “the Court found that Article 8 of the Convention provides for the right of individuals to effective protection by public authorities against the serious adverse effects of climate change on their life, health, well-being and quality of life”.
The judgements of the European Court of Human Rights have set a legal precedent on which future lawsuits in the 46 member states of the Council of Europe will be based.
While activists had already been successful in lawsuits at the national level, this was the first time an international court had ruled on climate change.
“This is a turning point,” a climate change litigation expert at the University of Zurich, Corina Heri said. She noted that Tuesday’s ruling confirms for the first time that countries have a duty to protect people from the effects of climate change and will open the door to more litigation.
As the climate crisis worsens, climate litigation has become an increasingly popular tool to try to force governments and companies to step up their climate action, especially as the world remains far off course to cut emissions fast enough to prevent catastrophic warming.
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who attended the demonstration, told reporters outside the courthouse that “this is just the beginning of the climate lawsuit.”
In 2023, the Earth broke global annual heat records, exceeded the agreed warming threshold and showed new signs of a feverish planet, European climate agency Copernicus said in January.
