Six young Portuguese are accusing countries around the world of not sufficiently adhering to the Paris Climate Agreement. They took the matter to the European Court of Justice. He even prioritized the procedure.
According to a UN report, there are now more than two thousand lawsuits against governments and companies around the world with the aim of stopping climate change. The number of lawsuits has doubled since 2017. For example, court cases from the Netherlands, Brazil, France, Great Britain and Germany have become known.
Of these cases, one is particularly famous: the lawsuit brought by six young Portuguese before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In the summer and autumn of 2017, they saw large areas of forest burning about 200 kilometers northeast of Lisbon. Fires destroyed entire towns. More than a hundred people died and many more were injured.
“We want to change something”
Catarina, now 24 years old, couldn’t get these images out of her head. It was clear to them that a previous heat wave had promoted the fires. “Everything was full of smoke. Our school was closed and we had to go home,” she says.
Many people then had breathing problems and psychological disorders as the fires raged right next to their houses. “It was immediately clear to us that something had to be done now,” she says. “That was the starting point for our initiative. We want to change something and stop climate change.”
Was the Human Rights Convention injured?
Catarina teamed up with five friends. They are now between 11 and 24 years old. Together with a lawyer, they considered what they could do. Three years after the fire disaster in autumn 2020, the group filed a lawsuit against 32 states before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the court of the Council of Europe. A British human rights organization has been supporting her ever since.
For her lawyer Mark Willers it is clear that the European Convention on Human Rights has been violated:
The climate crisis specifically threatens three human rights of the young plaintiffs, which are protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. It concerns the right to life, Article 2, the right to respect for private and family life, Article 8, and the non-discriminatory exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms, guaranteed in Article 14 of the Convention.
States should comply Climate protection agreement hold
A larger group of lawyers is now entrusted with the case. They emphasize that there has never been a lawsuit of this kind before. Specifically, the lawyers are demanding that the states being sued comply with their obligations under the Paris Climate Protection Agreement in order to limit global warming to well below two degrees.
The steps taken by governments so far are far from sufficient, says lawyer Gerry Listen. It’s about the future of his clients. “The European Convention on Human Rights gives them victim status. They suffer from the consequences of climate change,” he says. Of the minors in the group, it is the parents who officially act as plaintiffs and “with whose help we brought this lawsuit to the Human Rights Court.”
Instead of being rejected, it is even upgraded
The Court has prioritized the procedure. It was somewhat surprising that the teenagers’ lawsuit was not immediately dismissed. The court normally requires that a trial be carried out in the home country before the relevant authorities. Only when the legal process there has been exhausted, as they say in technical jargon, will the Strasbourg judges take up a matter.
But here an exception was made and the procedure was upgraded because not just five, but at least 17 judges, i.e. the Grand Chamber, take care of it. The Portuguese young people’s lawsuit therefore does not appear to be entirely hopeless.
Decision may still take some time
In March, the Court had already heard a climate lawsuit from Switzerland, the lawsuit brought by the so-called climate seniors. They claim that as older women they are particularly at risk of heat death. The court hearing in March received a lot of international attention. And this time too, the Court is expecting press from all over the world. As an exception, the judges of the Grand Chamber want to argue all day long.
There has not yet been a ruling on the climate seniors. In the case of the young people, no decision can be expected immediately. It is quite possible that the Court will only announce this in a few months.