The number of legal actions against climate inaction is exploding. The complaint of six young Portuguese people against 32 countries will be examined, from September 27, by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
It’s a bit like David against Goliath: from September 27 in Strasbourg, the complaint from six young Portuguese people suing 32 states for climate inaction will be examined.
It’s a story of indignation and patience that begins in 2017, when Claudia Duarte Agostinho vhis house is covered in ashes. That summer, in the region of Leiria, Portugal, it was a heatwave. Some 180,000 hectares of forest went up in smoke and 117 people died in the fires. A lawyer who campaigns in a climate NGO (GLAN) whispers in the ear of the young girl, still in shock, that she can perhaps file a complaint.
Claudia then convinces her brother, her sister, a neighbor and two friends, also barely out of adolescence. HAS At the time, we were not yet talking about strikes or youth climate marches. It will take them three years to put together their case.
More than 2,500 cases in progress worldwide
The group relies on Articles 2, 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). They say their right to life and their mental and physical health are threatened by fires and heatwaves caused by climate change. This summer’s fires have only strengthened their resolve: “There will be even more extreme heat waves, lasting a month or more. It will be amazing. Governments around the world have the power to stop this. European governments choose not to take their share. We can’t stand by and watch what happens“, explains Catarina Mota, 23 years old.
Young Portuguese people, now aged 11 to 24, criticize 32 states for not doing enough to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and protect them.
The countries cited in the action are 27 members of the EU (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden as well as Norway, Russia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Turkey.
Before the ECHR, this type of approach is a first. Furthermore, there have never been so many countries summoned to court at the same time. For Gearóid Ó Cuinn, spokesperson for the Global Legal Action Network, ““The fact that the court has ordered the review of this case by the Grand Chamber is an extremely significant development which demonstrates the extent to which it regards climate change as a serious human rights issue.”
For a judgment more binding than the Paris agreement
The number of legal actions against climate inaction by governments or big companies is exploding. A research center interested in these questions, the Sabin Center at Columbia University in the United States, has listed for September 2023 more than 2,500 ongoing cases, including 1,600 in the United States.
And sometimes it works: in 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ordered the government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions… which pushed The Hague to accelerate the movement.
If Claudia and her friends win their case with the judges, the 32 targeted countries (including Portugal and France) will be legally required to act, to impose new regulations on their multinationals. This ruling, they say, may be even more restrictive than the Paris climate agreement.