Expect a blizzard of climate litigation

In a “landmark” decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has effectively ruled that “weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights”, says

Ajit Niranjan in The Guardian. Specifically, it found that Switzerland had violated the rights to family life of a group of older Swiss women by not doing enough to stop the planet heating by the Paris agreement target of 1.5˚C above preindustrial levels. The ECHR, led by court president Síofra O’Leary (pictured), rejected two similar claims from other countries on technical grounds, but the verdict has “set out a path for organisations to bring further cases” and “raises judicial pressure on governments” to do more to lower carbon emissions. What practical effects the ruling will have is “far from clear”, says Alexander Horne in The Spectator. The court accepted that the complexity of climate policy means it is unable to demand any specific remedies. Still, the fact that climate policy has been ruled to be a humanrights issue that can’t be “reduced to the will of the majority of the electorate and elected representatives” will provoke alarm about the overreach of “judicial activism”.

Whether you approve of that or not, the ruling is significant, says Chris Baraniuk for Wired. It will give a boost to attempts to bring similar litigation in countries such as the UK, which have signed up to the ECHR. And the ECHR’s stature as a “highly influential international court” means it will affect countries outside its jurisdiction too. Around 100 similar cases are in progress in courts around the world. Greta Thunberg is surely right to expect more climate change-related litigation.