Climate, European court on human rights against Switzerland: it has failed its emissions targets

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has declared that countries are called upon to “better protect” their populations from the consequences of climate change, siding with a group of Swiss activists and establishing that the Confederation’s flop on its climate objectives represents a “violation” of the appellants’ human rights. States, we read in the Court’s ruling, must comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and guarantee “effective protection by state authorities from the serious negative effects of climate change on their lives, health, well-being and quality of life”. At the same time, the court rejected appeals brought by a group of Portuguese young people and a French mayor to force their governments to reduce emissions.

The Court’s ruling

By 16 votes to 1, the Court ruled that there had been a violation of Article 8 which establishes the right to effective protection by state authorities against the serious harmful effects of climate change on life, health, well-being and quality of life. The case was brought forward by the «Elders for Climate Protection» (2,500 Swiss women aged 73 on average) and four of its members who also developed individual requests. The Court found that the association was entitled to sue on behalf of people who claimed that their living conditions and health were threatened by climate change.

As regards the four individual applicants, the Court found that they did not meet the criteria for victim status and therefore declared their applications inadmissible. The Court’s decision – celebrated the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg – “is only the beginning in terms of climate litigation”. This, Thunberg said, is just the beginning when it comes to climate controversies: Around the world, more and more people are taking their governments to court to hold them accountable for their actions. Under no circumstances should we back down, we must fight even harder because this is only the beginning.”

«We will use every tool at our disposal, the climate justice movement has used different methods for decades, repeating the same message over and over again and, as we can see, emissions are still falling. we are still going in the wrong direction and we will not give up.”

Switzerland: We will implement and execute the ruling

Switzerland said it would study the decision to evaluate next steps. “We must, in good faith, implement and execute the sentence,” he told theAssociated Press Alain Chablais, who represented the country in last year’s hearings. Justice Siofra O’Leary, President of the Court, stressed that it will be up to governments to decide how to address climate change obligations.