The historic climate case is set to begin on Wednesday at the European Court of Human Rights.
Sofia Oliveira was 12 years old when catastrophic wildfires in central Portugal killed more than 100 people in 2017.
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She “felt it was now or never the time to speak out” as her country appeared to be affected by deadly man-made climate change.
As a student, Sofia prepares to take 32 European governments to court for failing to adequately address climate change.
Together with five other Portuguese young adults and children between the ages of 11 and 24, she accuses the countries of violating their human rights. The case will be heard by the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday September 27th.
It is the first climate change lawsuit filed in court and could require action to significantly reduce emissions and build cleaner infrastructure.
A historic case of climate change
A win for them in Strasbourg would be a striking example of this Young people They are taking a legal route to force their governments to radically reorient their climate policies.
The court’s rulings are legally binding on member states and, if they fail to comply, authorities face heavy court-imposed fines.
The Dishes are increasingly seen by activists as a way to avoid politics and hold governments to account. Last month, a federal judge ruled in a case brought by young environmental activists Montana ruled that state authorities were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment by allowing fossil fuel development.
Why are young people taking European governments to court?
When the Portuguese group decided to move on in 2017 legal action, Sofia wore braces, was taller than her younger brother André and was in the seventh grade of school. She hasn’t had braces for a long time and André, at 15 years old, is several centimeters taller than her.
As André stated in an interview, the past six years represented almost half of his life.
What has driven them to sift through the stacks of legal documents collected by the nonprofit group that supports them and the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic is what they call the urgent evidence around them that making the climate crisis worse.
The Praia do Norte beach on the Costa da Caparica near where Sofia and André live, south of the Portuguese capital Lisbon, was about a kilometer long when his father was his age, says André. Now, in the middle Coastal erosion, it measures less than 300 meters. Evidence like this led him to take part in climate demonstrations before he was even a teenager.
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The other four members of the Portuguese group – Catarina, Cláudia, Martim and Mariana – are siblings and cousins who live in the Leiria region of central Portugal, where forest fires are common in summer.
Scientists say the Saharan climate is spreading across the Mediterranean to southern European countries Portugal, where average temperatures are rising and rainfall is decreasing. Portugal’s hottest year on record was 1997, followed by 2017. The four driest years on record in the country of 10.3 million people have all occurred since 2003.
It’s a similar story across Europe, and the six Portuguese’s legal arguments are backed by science. Earth experienced the hottest summer ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, with a Record warm According to the World Meteorological Organization, August caps a season of brutal and deadly temperatures.
The world is far from fulfilling its promise to curb global warming by cutting emissions in line with 2015 demands, scientists say Paris Climate Agreement. Estimates suggest that global average temperatures could rise by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times by 2100, based on current warming and emissions reduction plans.
How do inadequate climate protection measures violate human rights?
On the specific impacts caused by the young Portuguese plaintiffs cannot sleep, concentrate, play outside or exercise during heatwaves. One of their schools was temporarily closed because the air became unbreathable due to wildfire smoke. Some of the Children suffer from health problems such as asthma, which make them more vulnerable to heat and air pollution.
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They are supported by the Global Legal Action Network, an international nonprofit organization that addresses challenges Human rights Violations. A crowdfunding campaign has received support from around the world, with messages of support coming from as far away as Japan, India and Brazil.
Gerry Liston, legal officer at GLAN, said the 32 governments had “trivialised” the case. “The governments have opposed every aspect of our case and all of our arguments,” he says.
André describes the governments as “condescending”.
“They don’t see climate as a priority,” Sofia adds.
The Portuguese government, for example, agrees that the state of the environment and human rights are linked, but insists that the government’s “actions aim to comply with its international obligations in this area” and that there is nothing to complain about.
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Are European governments keeping their climate promises?
At the same time, some governments in Europe are deviating from commitments they have already made.
Poland filed legal action last month aimed at canceling three of the European Union’s key climate measures. Last week, that British The government announced it is postponing for five years a ban on new petrol and diesel cars that was due to come into effect in 2030.
The Swedish The government’s national budget proposal last week, meanwhile, included cutting taxes on gasoline and diesel and cutting funding for climate and environmental measures.
Amid these developments, the courts are seen by activists as a recourse.
The London School of Economics says that worldwide the cumulative number of climate change-related cases has more than doubled to over 2,000 since 2015. It is said that around a quarter came onto the market between 2020 and 2022.
When will the court make a ruling?
The Portuguese activists who are not demanding financial compensation will probably have to wait longer. The verdict in their case could take up to 18 months, although they see the court’s decision in 2020 to speed up the process as an encouraging sign.
A precedent also gives activists courage. The Urgenda Foundation, a Dutch organization that promotes sustainability and innovation, filed the world’s first case against the Dutch government in which citizens argued that their government had a legal obligation to prevent dangerous climate change.
In 2019 the Dutch The Supreme Court ruled in Urgenda’s favor, ruling that the government’s emissions reduction target was unlawfully low. It called on authorities to further reduce emissions.
The government therefore decided to shut down coal-fired power plants by 2030 and passed packages worth billions to, among other things, reduce energy consumption and expand renewable energies.
Dennis van Berkel, Urgendaaccused governments of choosing climate targets that make “political sense” instead of listening to climate scientists. Judges could force them to justify that what they are doing on climate issues is enough, he said.
“There is currently no such control at any level,” he said. “This is something incredibly important that the courts can do.”