Six young people file lawsuits from 32 countries over wildfires and heatwaves

CNN
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The European Court of Human Rights will hear on Wednesday an “unprecedented” lawsuit filed by six young people against 32 European countries, accusing them of failing to address… Human-caused climate crisis.

The claimants, aged between 11 and 24 and all from Portugal, will argue they are on the front lines of climate change and ask the court to force these countries to accelerate climate action.

It is the first climate case to be brought before the European Court of Human Rights, and the largest of three climate cases considered by the court.

The stakes are high. A win would force countries to rapidly increase their climate ambitions, and would also provide a major boost to the chances of other climate lawsuits around the world – especially those alleging that countries have human rights obligations to protect people from the climate crisis.

However, if the court rules against the claimants, it could be damaging to other climate claims.

“This is truly a David and Goliath case, unprecedented in its scale and potential impacts,” said Gearóid O Quinn, director of the Global Legal Action Network, or GLAN, which supported the plaintiffs’ case.

He told CNN: “Never before have so many countries been forced to defend themselves anywhere in the world.”

The journey to Wednesday’s session began six years ago. “It all started in 2017 with the fires,” said Catarina Mota, one of the claimants.

Devastating forest fires burnt 500,000 hectares of Portugal More than 100 people were killed that year. As the fires crept toward where Mota lives, her school and others in the area were closed. “There was smoke everywhere,” she told CNN.

The disaster spurred the lawsuit. Mota began speaking with her friend and now fellow claimant, Claudia Duarte Agostino, and with the help of GLAN, they brought together four other claimants, all of whom had been affected by the 2017 fires.

In particular, the group says that although the fires have sparked this claim, climate change continues to impact their lives Extreme heat waves Which Portugal experiences regularly. They say these periods make it difficult to get out of the house, focus on schoolwork, sleep, and even breathe, in addition to their effects on their mental health.

“It makes us worry about our future. How can we not be afraid?” said prosecutor Andre dos Santos Oliveira, 15.

The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020 and relied heavily on crowdfunding, was fast-tracked by the European Court of Human Rights due to the urgency of the case and the large number of defendants.

On Wednesday, claimants will argue that failure to address the accelerating climate crisis violates their human rights, including their right to life and family life, freedom from inhumane treatment, and freedom from age discrimination.

They are asking the court to rule that countries fueling the climate crisis have obligations to protect not only their own citizens but also those outside their borders.

Their demand is for the 32 countries, which include 27 EU countries plus Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK, to dramatically cut pollution from planet-warming and force companies headquartered within their borders to cut emissions across their entire supply. chains.

For their part, the suing countries claimed in written submissions that none of the claimants had proven that they had suffered serious damage as a result of climate change.

The government in Greece – a country that has just experienced a deadly summer heat, fire And Storms “The effects of climate change as recorded so far do not appear to directly affect human life or human health,” she said in her response.

A lawsuit could go one of several ways.

The court can dismiss the case on procedural grounds or decide that it does not have jurisdiction to hear it.

If it passes the procedural hurdles, the court could rule that states have no human rights obligations when it comes to climate change. Michael B. said: “It could be very damaging to other similar cases,” said Gerard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

Or the court could rule in favor of the claimants. O’Quinn told CNN that the ruling “will serve as a legally binding treaty,” forcing all 32 countries to accelerate climate action.

“This could be a very important decision that will inspire more climate events across Europe and perhaps in many other regions,” Gerard told CNN.

This lawsuit is the largest of three claims before the court, all of which relate to states’ obligations to their citizens when it comes to climate change.

The other two were heard in court in March. One was brought before More than 2,000 elderly Swiss womenwho claimed that heat waves caused by climate change undermined their health and quality of life, and the other by a French mayor, who claimed that France’s failure to act on climate change violated his human rights.

It’s unclear whether the courts will rule on all the claims together, but the time frame between hearing and ruling typically ranges from nine to 18 months, said Gerry Liston, senior attorney at GLAN.

like Severe weather is getting worseClimate litigation has proven difficult An increasingly popular tool To try to impose climate action, especially countries around the world Didn’t do enough To reduce pollution and avoid catastrophic levels of temperature rise.

Even if current climate policies are met, the world is still on track More than 2.5 degrees Celsius Temperatures will rise above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. The planet has already warmed by about 1.2 degrees, and the effects are clear. This year alone has seen records broken Heat waves, Unprecedented forest fires And Catastrophic floods.

States are currently doing the bare minimum, and if every country did, “we would continue on this absolutely disastrous path,” GLAN’s Liston said.

This is why people turn to the courts. There are more than 2,400 climate lawsuits globally, according to the Sabin Center, with more added every week.

Climate litigation is an important tool, said Catherine Higham, coordinator of the Global Climate Change Laws Project at the London School of Economics. “But I think it’s just one piece of the puzzle,” she told CNN.

She added that continued advocacy and climate conferences – such as the upcoming UN COP28 summit in Dubai – are also vital.

For the Portuguese claimants, it will be an anxious wait for the court’s ruling. Even if the claim doesn’t go their way, Motta said, it will at least make people sit up and take notice.

“But we are looking forward to a positive result,” she added.