CNN –
The European Court of Human Rights will on Wednesday hear an “unprecedented” lawsuit by six young people against 32 European countries, accusing them of failing to tackle the man-made climate crisis.
The plaintiffs, all between the ages of 11 and 24 and from Portugal, will argue that they are on the front lines of climate change and ask the court to force these countries to quickly accelerate climate action.
It is the first climate lawsuit to be filed with the European Court of Human Rights and the largest of three climate lawsuits heard by the court.
It’s about a lot. A victory would force countries to quickly increase their climate ambitions and would also hugely increase the chances of other climate lawsuits around the world – particularly those that argue that countries have human rights obligations to protect people from the climate crisis.
However, if the court rules against the plaintiffs, it could prove damaging to other climate lawsuits.
“This is truly a David and Goliath case, unprecedented in its scale (and potential impact),” said Gearóid Ó Cuinn, director of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which has supported the plaintiffs’ case .
“Never before have so many states had to defend themselves anywhere in the world,” he told CNN.
The journey to Wednesday’s hearing began six years ago. “It all started in 2017 with the fires,” said Catarina Mota, one of the plaintiffs.
Devastating forest fires burned 500,000 hectares of Portugal this year and killed more than 100 people. As the fires spread to Mota’s home, her school and others in the area were closed. “The smoke was everywhere,” she told CNN.
The disaster triggered the lawsuit. Mota began speaking with her friend and now co-plaintiff Cláudia Duarte Agostinho, and with the support of GLAN, they gathered four other plaintiffs, all affected by the 2017 fires.
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
A firefighter fights a fire after wildfires killed dozens of people near Pedrogao Grande in the Leiria district of Portugal on June 19, 2017. Some of the victims died in their cars as they tried to flee the area.
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
A woman reacts to flames approaching her home after a wildfire killed dozens of people in a village near Pedrogao Grande in the Leiria district of Portugal on June 19, 2017.
Although the lawsuit was sparked by the fires, climate change continues to impact their lives, the group argues, particularly through the intense heatwaves Portugal regularly experiences. They say these times are making it difficult to go outside, concentrate on school work, sleep and, for some, even breathe, in addition to the impact on their mental health.
“It makes us worried about our future. How could we not be afraid?” said 15-year-old plaintiff André dos Santos Oliviera.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020 and relying heavily on crowdfunding, was fast-tracked by the European Court of Human Rights due to the urgency of the matter and the large number of defendants.
On Wednesday, the plaintiffs will argue that failure to address the worsening climate crisis violates their human rights, including their right to life and family life, freedom from inhumane treatment and freedom from age discrimination.
They are asking the court to rule that countries fueling the climate crisis have a duty to protect not only their own citizens but also those outside their borders.
Their demand is that the 32 countries, which include the 27 countries of the European Union as well as Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom, drastically reduce their pollution caused by the warming of the planet, as well as companies headquartered within of their borders, forcing them to reduce emissions across their entire range of chains.
The countries being sued have, for their part, claimed in written statements that none of the plaintiffs have proven that they have suffered serious harm as a result of climate change.
The government in Greece – a country that has just experienced a deadly summer of heat, fire and storms – said in its response: “The impacts of climate change identified so far do not appear to have a direct impact on human life or health.”
Courtesy of Marcelo Engenheiro
Four of the six plaintiffs: Martim Duarte, 17, Cláudia Duarte, 21, Mariana Duarte, 8, and Catarina Mota, 20.
The lawsuit could take place in several ways.
The court could dismiss the action on procedural grounds or decide that it did not have jurisdiction to make the decision.
If it overcomes the procedural hurdles, the court could rule that states have no human rights obligations when it comes to climate change. “This could be very damaging to other similar cases,” said Michael B. Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
Or the court could rule in favor of the plaintiffs. The ruling would “act like a legally binding treaty,” Ó Cuinn told CNN, forcing all 32 countries to accelerate climate action.
“This could be an extremely important decision that will lead to more climate cases across Europe and perhaps in many other regions,” Gerrard told CNN.
The lawsuit is the largest of three before the court, all involving countries’ obligations to their citizens related to climate change.
The other two were heard by the court in March. One was brought by more than 2,000 elderly Swiss women who claimed that heat waves caused by climate change were affecting their health and quality of life, and the other by a French mayor who claimed that France’s failure to act on climate change violated their human rights .
It is unclear whether the courts will rule on all claims as a whole, but the time frame between hearing and verdict is typically nine to 18 months, said Gerry Liston, senior attorney at GLAN.
As extreme weather conditions worsen, climate lawsuits are proving an increasingly popular tool to force climate action, especially as the world’s nations have not done enough to reduce pollution and avert catastrophic warming.
Even if current climate action is implemented, the world is still on track to achieve warming of more than 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. The planet has already warmed by about 1.2 degrees, and the effects are clear. This year alone has seen record-breaking heatwaves, unprecedented wildfires and catastrophic flooding.
Countries are just doing the bare minimum right now, GLAN’s Liston said, and if every country does that, “we’ll just continue on this completely disastrous path.”
This is why people turn to the courts. According to the Sabin Center, there are more than 2,400 climate lawsuits worldwide, with more being added every week.
Climate litigation is an important tool, said Catherine Higham, coordinator of the Climate Change Laws of the World project at the London School of Economics. “But I think it’s absolutely just one piece of the puzzle,” she told CNN.
Continued advocacy and climate conferences – such as the upcoming COP28 United Nations summit in Dubai – are also crucial, she added.
The Portuguese plaintiffs will be eagerly awaiting the court’s verdict. Even if the claim doesn’t go her way, Mota said, it will at least have made people stand up and pay attention.
Still, she added, “We long for a positive outcome.”