Claimants in the largest climate litigation to date argue that the lack of adequate action is a human rights violation.
Six young people are preparing to arrive at the European Court of Human Rights in an attempt to force 32 European countries to rapidly reduce emissions. This can be briefly described as the world's largest climate litigation to date. The young Portuguese people, aged between 11 and 24, say they were prompted to act by the experiences they had during the forest fires that raged in the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying 20,000 hectares of forest.
Following another summer of wildfires in Portugal, Greece, Spain, Croatia and Italy, the young people are preparing to tell the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg court that the 32 European countries' policies for tackling global warming are insufficient and violate human rights obligations.
With crowdfunding from around the world that has raised more than £100,000, the young people want the judges to make a binding decision that would force countries to rapidly increase emission cuts, which would be a historic turning point in climate litigation.
“This is an unprecedented case in terms of its scale and consequences. Never before have so many countries had to defend themselves in any court in the world,” said Gearóid Ó Cuinn from the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which is supporting the claimants.
One of the claimants, 15-year-old André Oliveira (André dos Santos Oliveira), said: “European governments are not protecting us. We are living with the effects of climate change all over Europe. This summer in Portugal, we experienced heatwaves that are becoming more and more intense. Our opportunities to do anything, to live our lives, are becoming limited. The climate crisis is affecting our physical and mental health; how can we not be afraid in this situation?”