More than 2,000 members of the association, with an average age of 73 years, denounce the consequences of global warming for their health.
Justice
More than 2,000 members of the association, with an average age of 73 years, denounce the consequences of global warming for their health.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this week began hearing the first complaints from individuals against their countries, Switzerland and France, to make more efforts to combat climate change.
The first case is that of the members of the association “The oldest for the protection of the Swiss climate”, more than 2,000, with an average age of 73, who denounce the consequences of global warming for their health.
In the afternoon, a complaint from the former mayor of Grande-Synthe (northern France) Damien Carême, currently a MEP for the Europa Ecologia – Os Verdes party, presented in 2019, on his behalf and as mayor, for “climate inaction”, will be analyzed. considering that his city, on the coast, was at risk of submersion.
In addition to these, the international court of the Council of Europe will examine another major climate-related case after the summer, that of young Portuguese people who accuse Portugal and 32 other countries of their alleged inaction against global warming.
The hearing on the Swiss association, in the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR, which judges the most important cases, was attended by over 400 people, including numerous members of the organisation.
“We’ve come this far and I hope that the court will give us reason for Switzerland to do better than it has done so far”, said Bruna Molinari, 81 years old and one of the plaintiffs, to Agence France-Presse, before the start of the hearing.
Molinari, who lives in the south of the canton of Ticino, “where there is more pollution”, added that the association’s struggle has been going on for years.
“Heat kills”
The representative of the Swiss government, Alain Chablais, opened the debate considering that “stating or suggesting that Switzerland shows inertia (in terms of climate) derives from a process of intention”, as well as that the ECHR “has no vocation to become the place where national climate protection policies are decided”.
“Heat kills (…) it increases the risk of kidney problems, asthma attacks, cardiovascular problems (…) and causes serious symptoms, particularly serious in the case of the elderly”, said Jessica Simor, lawyer for the plaintiffs, for whom Switzerland it does not take sufficient measures against the increase in temperature, “twice as high” in this country as the global average.
In July 2021, the highest French administrative court ruled in favor of the complaint filed by Damien Carême on behalf of the municipality, giving France nine months to “take all useful measures” to reduce “greenhouse gas emissions” and respect the goals of the Paris Agreement (-40% by 2030 compared to 1990).
But the complaint on Carême’s personal behalf was rejected and the politician appealed to the ECtHR.
Former French environment minister Corinne Lapage, Carême’s lawyer, told AFP that the situation is important because the court’s decision “will be applied in all Council of Europe states”.
The court is not expected to release decisions on the two cases until several months from now.
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