Europe’s top human rights court set a precedent this week when it ruled that the Swiss government had violated its citizens human rights by its failure to adequately combat climate change.
A group of 2,000 elderly Swiss women brought the case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that their age and gender made them especially vulnerable to the effects of heatwaves linked to climate change.
The ruling will have implications for every country signed on to the European Convention on Human Rights, Ireland included, as it will by its legally-binding precedent likely embolden citizens and environmental groups to bring climate cases against their governments.
In her ruling, Irish Court President Siofra O’Leary said that the Swiss government had failed to comply with its greenhouse gas emission targets and had also failed to set a national carbon budget.
“It is clear that future generations are likely to bear an increasingly severe burden of the consequences of present failures and omissions to combat climate change,” the court’s decision read.
However, the ECHR rejected two other climate cases brought by Portugal and France.
The group of six Portuguese young people claimed that 32 states, Ireland included, were infringing upon their “lives, well-being, mental health and the peaceful enjoyment of their homes” by their inadequate climate policies.
Meanwhile, a former inhabitant and mayor of a low-lying French coastal town complained that France was taking “insufficient steps” to prevent global warming, which he claimed constitutes a violation of the right to life and the right to respect for private and family life.
Both cases were declared inadmissible on procedural grounds.
The Swiss women, known as KlimaSeniorinnen, expressed disbelief at the scale of their victory, with one of the group’s leaders, Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti saying that she was struggling to grasp the full extent of the decision.
“We keep asking our lawyers, ‘Is that right?’. And they tell us ‘it’s the most you could have had. The biggest victory possible’.”
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice, which represented the Swiss government at the court, took note of the ruling.
“Together with the authorities concerned, we will now analyse the extensive judgment and review what measures Switzerland will take in the future,” it said in a statement.
The Irish government intervened both in the written proceedings and orally as a third party. It stated that the risk the applicants face is no greater than the risks inherent to life in a modern city.
The Government’s 2023 Climate Action Plan is facing a challenge from the Friends of the Irish Environment group, which is arguing that the plan isn’t specific enough in detailing how Ireland will cut emissions in line with its carbon budget.