The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of
a group of elderly Swiss women on Tuesday who had
argued that their government's inadequate efforts to combat climate change
put them at risk of dying during heat waves.
The verdict cannot be appealed is a potential turning point
for climate action. It could compel the Swiss government
to take greater action on reducing emissions like revising Switzerland's
2030 emissions reductions targets to get in line with the
Paris Agreement. Mara is the co president of the
Guptas filed a climate lawsuit ruling today is a historic
ruling and we are really, really happy to have
carried this all the way to the European Court of
human rights countries should do what it has not done
until now. Meaning to take ambitious measures to protect
our health and protect the future for all of us
. Court President Siofra o'leary said the Swiss government had
violated the human right to a private and family life
by failing to put in place sufficient domestic policies to
tackle climate change. This included a failure to quantify
through a carbon budget or otherwise national greenhouse gas emissions
limitations. The Swiss government said it will now analyze
the ruling and review the measures Switzerland will take in
the future. The European court's ruling brought by more
than 2000 elderly women could have a ripple effect across
Europe and beyond setting a precedent for how courts deal
with the rising tide of climate litigation. But in
a sign of the complexities of climate litigation, the
court rejected two similar climate related cases. The first
brought by six Portuguese youth against 32 European governments and
another by the former mayor of a low lying French
coastal town climate activist, Greta Thunberg attended the hearing
in support of the Portuguese group and this is only
the beginning of climate litigation all over the world.
More and more people are taking their government to court
, holding them responsible for their actions. The cases
before the 17 judge panel in Strasbourg France joined a
growing trend of communities bringing climate lawsuits against governments with
arguments resting on human rights law.