A group of elderly Swiss women won the first ever victory in a climate change case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday, the 9th of April, arguing that their government’s lack of action on climate change puts them at greater risk of dying during heatwaves, reports the British broadcaster BBC.
The women, mostly in their 70s, said their age and gender made them particularly vulnerable to the effects of heatwaves linked to climate change.
This is the first time a European court has ruled on global warming.
The Court ruled that Switzerland
“has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Convention with regard to climate change”.
According to Reuters, the European Court found that the Swiss government had violated the right to private and family life by failing to implement adequate domestic policies to tackle climate change, including by failing to set clear limits on greenhouse gas emissions or by failing to meet previously set targets for limiting emissions through effective measures.
A Swiss women’s group, KlimaSeniorinnen, or “Senior Women for Climate Protection”, claimed that they were unable to leave their homes during heatwaves in Switzerland and were suffering from health problems.
Data released on Tuesday showed that last month was the world’s warmest March on record, meaning that
temperature records have been broken for ten months in a row.
The court dismissed two other cases brought by six Portuguese youths and a former French mayor. Both argued that European governments had failed to tackle climate change quickly enough, thus violating their rights.
This historic and binding decision could affect climate change litigation in 46 European countries, influencing how courts deal with human rights abuses related to climate change around the world.
Governments around the world have pledged to significantly reduce emissions of gases that warm the Earth’s atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. But scientists and activists warn that progress is not enough to meet the critical target of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C.
The ruling, which cannot be appealed, could force the Swiss government to take more action to reduce emissions, including revising its 2030 emissions reduction targets, reports Reuters.
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