[1/3]Andre, 15, and Sofia Oliveira, 18, pose for a photo in Almada, Portugal, on July 29, 2023. They are part of a six-member group that has taken action against 32 countries at the European Court of Justice for allegedly failing to do their part of climate change have not achieved catastrophe. Portal/Pedro Nunes/File Photo Acquire License Rights
Sept 27 (Portal) – Six young people from areas in Portugal hit by wildfires and heatwaves will take 32 European governments to court on Wednesday over their inaction on climate rights.
The case, filed in September 2020 against the 27 EU member states as well as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and Turkey, is the largest climate case ever brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.
With support from the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), the Portuguese applicants, aged between 11 and 24, are seeking a legally binding decision that would force states to act.
A verdict in the case is expected in the first half of 2024. If the lawsuit is upheld, it could lead to national courts ordering governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions responsible for climate change more quickly than currently planned.
Gerry Liston, one of GLAN’s lawyers, said if the case was successful it would be up to national courts to enforce the rulings and they would be provided with a roadmap to ensure effective enforcement.
Applicants will argue that climate change threatens their rights, including to life, physical and mental well-being.
One of the six, 15-year-old Andre Oliveira, previously told Portal their goal was to force governments to “do what they promised,” referring to the 2015 Paris agreement to cut emissions to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and ideally 1.5 °C. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, current policies would not achieve any of these goals.
“Without urgent measures to reduce emissions, (the place) where I live will soon become an unbearable furnace,” another applicant, 20-year-old Martim Agostinho, said in a statement.
Agostinho and three other applicants come from the central Portuguese region of Leiria, where two forest fires killed more than 100 people in 2017.
Dozens of lawyers
More than 80 lawyers are expected to represent the accused countries in court, while the applicants will be represented by six lawyers, making for a hearing that GLAN described in a statement as “unprecedented in scale.”
Liston acknowledged that it was not easy to “take over the legal teams of over 30 very well-resourced countries.”
Portugal’s legal team told the court that it was committed to fighting climate change and the plaintiffs had not provided evidence of its direct impact on them.
Britain argued the case should be rejected because it was “inadmissible” on various grounds, including jurisdiction.
Climate disputes in Europe and beyond are increasing.
Last month, a judge in the US state of Montana awarded a historic victory to young plaintiffs in a climate change case. In addition to Wednesday’s youth case, two other climate cases are pending before the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR.
Reporting by Catarina Demony in Lisbon; Edited by Aislinn Laing and Alex Richardson
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