The cases before the 17-judge panel in Strasbourg, France, are among the increasing number of climate lawsuits brought by communities against governments that hinge on human rights law.
“Regardless of the legal arguments, what these cases do is they remind us of the high importance and urgency which our citizens attach to climate action,” a European Commission spokesman said.
Global civic movement Avaaz said the court’s Swiss ruling had opened a new chapter in climate litigation. “(It) sets a crucial legally binding precedent serving as a blueprint for how to successfully sue your own government over climate failures,” Ruth Delbaere, legal campaigns director at Avaaz, said.
The verdicts, which cannot be appealed, could compel the Swiss federal government to take greater action on reducing emissions, including revising its 2030 emissions reductions targets to get in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In the case brought by the Portuguese youngsters, the court ruled that while a state’s greenhouse gas emissions may have an adverse impact on people living outside its borders, it did not justify prosecuting a case across multiple jurisdictions. It also noted that the young people had not exhausted legal avenues within Portugal’s national courts before coming to the European Court of Human Rights.
With inputs from Reuters
Source link : https://stratnewsglobal.com/world-news/switzerland-climate-change-european-court-of-human-rights/
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Publish date : 2024-04-09 07:00:00
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