Facts: Has sued about 30 states
On 6 September 2020, six Portuguese children and young people submitted a lawsuit to the European Court of Human Rights against 33 countries of the Council of Europe.
The goal is that the countries do not take strong enough climate measures to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming.
According to the lawsuit, the countries’ emission of greenhouse gases means, among other things, that the children’s right to life, in accordance with the European Convention, is curtailed.
The Court can hear complaints from individuals as well as Member States with the aim of assessing whether there has been a violation of any of the civil or political rights protected by the Convention.
The court has not previously taken a position on the members’ obligations regarding climate change. In addition to the Duarte Agostinho case, two other climate cases involving France and Switzerland are ongoing.
Source: European Court of Justice
It has been called the “road of death”, where burned-out car wrecks, charred signs and covered corpses testified to how quickly the fire spread. The forest fire in Leira in Portugal in 2017 made six children and young people decide to act.
The Portuguese youth have sued over 30 countries, including Sweden, as they believe that they are not doing enough to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that fuel climate change. The young people, aged 11-24, believe that, among other things, it violates the European Convention’s articles that everyone has the right to life and health.
“We are on the front line of climate change in Europe, but the European governments are failing to protect us,” says one of them, 15-year-old André Oliveira, at a press conference.
— This summer we experienced heat waves in Portugal that are only getting worse. The climate crisis affects our physical and mental health. It is still possible to stop the crisis, but time is running out.
Siblings Sofia and André Oliveira are two of the six young people who are suing a number of European countries for lack of climate policy. The case is being tried
The European Court of Justice in Strasbourg will hear the case, known as the Duarte Agostinho case, on September 27. The young people hope for a binding decision, to force the countries to quickly increase their emission reductions.
After the hearing, the court begins deliberations. The decision is likely to take months.
— It’s David against Goliath. Never before have so many countries had to defend themselves before a court, says Gearóid Ó Cuinn, from the Global Legal Action Network, which supports the young people.
In a response to the court in 2021, the Swedish government at the time wrote that it considered that there were formal obstacles to the case being taken up in the European Court, including that the requirements of the European Convention were not met as the case was not first tried in a national court.
Part of the trend
If the European Court follows the line of the young people, it may decide that countries are legally bound to increase their emission reductions, including emissions they contribute to in other countries, according to Salvatore De Rosa, who researches climate movements and the legal system at Lund University. But it is unlikely, according to him, that the court would go so far as to set targets for individual countries.
The climate issue ends up in the courtrooms more and more often. Among other things, the young people in the organization Aurora have sued Sweden’s government and claim that its climate work is insufficient and contravenes the European Convention.
“When we find ourselves in such a serious crisis for the climate and biodiversity, people become desperate and use all the legitimate tools they have access to,” says spokesperson Ida Edling.
— The law as a tool is powerful and cannot be ignored.
“Crucial Goal”
In the Aurora case, there is an exchange of letters between the organization and the Chancellor of Justice, who represents the state. The success of Aurora may depend on how the European Court of Justice interprets the European Convention in climate cases such as the Duarte-Agostinho case, according to Edling.
— The European Court of Justice will hear three climate cases in its large chamber. The judges will directly decide whether Aurora will succeed or not, she says.
— It is the European Court of Justice that interprets the European Convention. If the European Court says that states absolutely have an obligation under the right to life and the right to health to take adequate climate action, our chances will be much better.
TT has applied for climate minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L).