Why 32 European countries are facing the largest climate action lawsuit till date | Explained Premium

September 27 will mark the beginning of a historic legal battle in the climate action movement. Six young people from Portugal will take 32 European governments to court for faltering on climate emissions goals, thus violating individuals’ human rights.

The story so far: September 27 will mark the beginning of a historic legal battle in the climate action movement. The stage: European Court of Human Rights in France’s Strasbourg. The actors in question: 32 European governments (including the U.K., Russia and Turkey) and six young people from Portugal, aged 11 to 24. The plaintiffs are set to argue before 17 judges that their governments have failed to take sufficient action against the climate crisis, thus violating their human rights and discriminating against young people globally. Gearóid Ó Cuinn, of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), said the scale and consequence of the lawsuit are unprecedented. “This is truly a David and Goliath case...Never before have so many countries had to defend themselves in front of any court anywhere in the world,” he told reporters.

The narrative of young people taking governments to court is gaining momentum: as of December 2022, 2,180 climate-related cases were filed in 65 countries across international and regional courts, tribunals and quasi-judicial bodies, per the United Nations’s Global Climate Litigation Report. At least 34 cases were brought by, or on behalf of, children and young people under 25 years of age. Youth, in addition to women, local communities and indigenous stakeholders, were “driving climate change governance reform.”

Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and Others was filed in September 2020, in the aftermath of the wildfires that consumed Portugal’s Leiria in 2017. Almost 66 people died, and 20,000 hectares of forests were lost. The recent spate of heatwaves and fires across Greece, Canada and other parts of Europe served as reminders that every increment beyond the 1.5°C temperature threshold would be catastrophic, intensifying “multiple and concurrent hazards,” as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states in its report.

The Portuguese youths claim that European nations have faltered in their climate emissions goals, blowing past their global carbon budgets consistent with the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming under 1.5°C. They are expected to show scientific evidence that if every country moves at the current pace, global heating will rise to 3°C within their lifetime. The nations have thus violated people’s fundamental rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to life, the right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment, the right to privacy and family life and the right to be free from discrimination. “

These European governments are failing to protect us... Our ability to do anything, to live our lives, is becoming restricted. The climate crisis is affecting our physical health and our mental health; how could you not be scared?” said André dos Santos Oliveira, 15, to a media house. More than 50% of young people, from France, India, and the U.S. among other countries, reported feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty as they have “little power to limit the harms of climate change”.

Since the 32 countries contributed to climate catastrophes and jeopardised the future of young people, it falls upon the nations to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions and aim higher in curtailing domestic emissions, in line with what scientific evidence shows, the lawsuit argues. Other suggested measures include cutting the production of fossil fuels and cleaning up global supply chains.

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC), a body which provides scientific advice to EU countries, said countries will have to target emissions reduction of 75% below 1990 levels (as opposed to the EU’s current 55%). “Under some of these principles, the EU has already exhausted its fair share of the global emissions budget,” their report states, echoing the plaintiffs’ claim that European countries have overstated their carbon budget claims. The EU at present is the sixth largest emitter with 7.2 tons of CO2 per capita, while the world averages 6.3 tons per capita.