European court rules government protection from climate change is a human right

this would be funny if it wasn't going to bankrupt nations


‘Only the beginning’: European court rules government protection from climate change is a human right


The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sided with a group of female senior citizens who had sued their government over its perceived failures to sufficiently address climate change on human rights grounds, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A group of more than 2,000 Swiss women over the age of 64 alleged that the Swiss government’s climate change policies were in violation of the right to life and other provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the ECHR ruled in their favor in its first decision pertaining directly to climate change, according to the WSJ. The decision sets a new precedent in most of Europe that could encourage similar cases against national governments and corporations.

“Climate campaigners are likely to seize on the conclusion that states have positive obligations under human rights law in relation to climate change, and use it as the basis for future claims against states which they deem to not be moving quickly enough to address the threat of climate change,” Tom Cummins, a partner at a global law firm called Ashurst, told the WSJ. “Companies and financial institutions will also want to review these cases carefully. Corporate climate litigation often relies on human rights arguments, including in high profile cases like the Dutch litigation brought by Milieudefensie against Shell. The decision in the case against Switzerland will likely encourage claims of this nature.”

LINK