The Court seems to have spelled out a clear way forward for climate cases - and confirmed that climate change is very much an ECHR issue,” she writes from Strasbourg, while live-tweeting the hearing on X.
Surely this means that means that responsible people, like fossil fuel CEOs or legislators slowing down the change to renewables will be held accountable, right?
Right?
Right?
Yips, that’s the idea.
Here some DW background info of the youth protest, especially by the Portuguese youngsters.
Unfortunately, the Portuguese suit was unsuccessful, because it was “too far reaching” according to ECHR, the can’t sue more than their own country and haven’t gone through their own country’s legal system before sueing in front of the ECHR.
Only the swiss seniors’ suit (try saying that three times as fast as you can lol) was successful.There’s also German national-level decisions. First it was the constitutional court saying “legislature must enact stricter laws”, then it was the BGH saying “yep the government is in breach of those laws”. Then, crickets. Or, well, I haven’t kept up I’d be surprised if citizens don’t have standing before the ECHR when it comes to rule of law breaches.
The protests last year where activists glued themselves to roads were about this exact thing. The message was “act according to the law”. They were branded terrorists by media and politicians.
I just hope this ruling, and future ones, will be used on a wise and right way. I mean one could rule that a certain country hasn’t been upholding its own climate targets which sounds fair enough; it seems more or less measurable, accountable and executable.
I imagine that Switzerland will have to adjust its environmental policies to match their climate quotas.Even better: This ruling applies to far more than just Switzerland.
A basis for the ruling was a breach of art 8 of the Human Rights convention"
"Today, the Strasbourg Court declared that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights encompasses a right to effective protection by the state “from the serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life”.
It found that the Swiss Confederation had failed to comply with its duties under the Convention concerning climate change."
