The European Court of Human Rights found that Switzerland has failed to do enough to slow climate change impacts, violating the rights of a group of older Swiss women to have their private and family lives respected.
The Strasbourg, France-based court's landmark ruling in the case of Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland on Tuesday could prod more European countries to protect their citizens from planetary warming. But it also leaves it to governments to decide how to meet their obligations.
The ruling affirms that nations are obliged to sufficiently mitigate climate change and "provides a basis for determined action and justice globally," said Volker Türk, head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, in Geneva.
Europe’s highest human rights court sided with a group of more than 2,000 older women with an average age of 74 that is concerned about climate change, along with four other women older than 80 who complained of government inaction on climate protections.
They told the court their health problems worsened during heatwaves, which are becoming more frequent. Since the case was filed, the oldest of the four, born in 1931, has died. The court, however, rejected two other, similar cases on procedural grounds. One involved six Portuguese between the ages of 10 and 23; the other was brought by the former mayor of Grande-Synthe.
Nations obliged to act in a 'timely and appropriate manner'
All three cases had challenged nations to do more to meet their legal obligations to protect people's lives by curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Nations are obliged under the 2015 Paris Agreement to hold global warming to no more than 2° degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, or 1.5° degrees preferably.
Switzerland's environment department decided in 2017 that the complainants could not be considered victims. Swiss courts dismissed their appeals in part because it said women older than 75 were not the only population affected.
The Swiss case – marking the first instance of an international court ruling that governments are obliged to protect people from the effects of climate change – will now set a legal precedent for the 46 member nations in the Council of Europe that could encourage more such lawsuits.
The court was created to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights, which was drafted by the Council of Europe and entered into force in 1953. Switzerland also is a member because it ratified the European convention.
"The court concludes that the Swiss Confederation failed to fulfill the obligations that the convention imposed on it in relation to climate change," it said. "Swiss authorities have not acted in a timely and appropriate manner to design, develop and implement the relevant legislation and measures in this case."
The U.N. General Assembly also has asked The Hague-based International Court of Justice for a legal opinion on the consequences of climate inaction.
Both the 27-nation European Union and Switzerland, which is not part of the E.U., have set targets of becoming climate neutral by 2050. Swiss voters approved a new law last year seeking to accelerate a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies.
This story has been updated with additional details.
