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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

This week begins with a timely and essential question. Does government inaction on climate change violate human rights?

That is the question the European Court of Human Rights had to answer in Strasbourg, France, as it ruled on Tuesday on three separate climate cases.

It ruled in favor of a group of Swiss women who had argued that their government’s inadequate efforts to combat climate change put them at risk of dying during heat waves.

The European court’s decision on the case, brought by more than 2,000 women, could have a ripple effect across Europe and beyond, setting a precedent for how some courts deal with the rising tide of climate litigation argued on the basis of human rights infringements.

Also on my radar today:

• Colombia capital Bogota to ration water as reservoirs dry
• Big companies’ emissions goals are too weak, report says
• Amid probe into Musk, Brazil’s top court says ‘every company is subject to the constitution’

Anne Mahrer and Rosmarie Wydler-Walti, from the Senior Women for Climate Protection, talk to journalists after the verdict at the ECHR in Strasbourg. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Court President Siofra O’Leary said the Swiss government had violated the human right to a private and family life, by failing to put in place sufficient domestic policies to tackle climate change.

“This included a failure to quantify, through a carbon budget or otherwise, national greenhouse gas emissions limitations,” O’Leary told the courtroom.

She also noted the Swiss government had failed to meet its past greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, by not putting in place measures to ensure the goals were achieved.

The Swiss verdict, which cannot be appealed, could compel the government to take greater action on reducing emissions, including revising its 2030 emissions reductions targets to get in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Global civic movement Avaaz said the court’s ruling had opened a new chapter in climate litigation.

“The Swiss ruling sets a crucial legally binding precedent serving as a blueprint for how to successfully sue your own government over climate failures,” said Ruth Delbaere, legal campaigns director at Avaaz.

Despite the success of the Swiss ruling, the court did throw out two other similar cases. The first case was brought by six Portuguese youth against 32 European governments and another by a former French mayor against the French government.

The Portuguese youths argued their right to life is threatened by climate change-driven events such as wildfires, and that failure to tackle climate change particularly discriminates against young people who face the prospect of an increasingly unliveable planet.

In the other case, Damien Carême, a former mayor of the French commune of Grande-Synthe, challenged France’s refusal to take more ambitious climate measures.

“I really hoped that we would win against all the countries so obviously I’m disappointed that this didn’t happen,” Sofia Oliveira, one of the Portuguese youngsters said in a statement.

“But the most important thing is that the Court has said in the Swiss women’s case that governments must cut their emissions more to protect human rights. So, their win is a win for us too and a win for everyone!”

The Swiss case win could embolden more communities to bring similar cases against governments.

Six other climate cases have been put on hold by the Strasbourg court pending Tuesday’s three rulings, said Joie Chowdhury, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law.

These include a lawsuit against the Norwegian government that alleges it violated human rights by issuing new licenses for oil and gas exploration in the Barents Sea beyond 2035.

This week’s ruling will also have influence beyond Europe’s borders, said Lucy Maxwell, co-director of the Climate Litigation Network.

Courts in Australia, Brazil, Peru and South Korea are considering human rights-based climate cases. “They will be looking at what happens in Europe and there will be ripple effects well outside,” she said.

Rescuers make their way on a flooded residential area in the city of Orsk, Russia. in this still image taken from video. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/ File Photo

Patrick Donati, founder of Italian independent power producer Terrawatt, shares his thoughts on the landmark ruling in favor of the Swiss climate activist group “Swiss Elders for Climate Protection” in their case against their government:

“After many years fighting this case in the national courts of Switzerland, the group brought the case to the ECHR, which ultimately declared that article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights includes state protection from ‘serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life’.

“As climate change intensifies, more and more consequences are being felt by individuals and businesses globally, from olive oil producer prices skyrocketing due to poor harvests, to coastal communities being subjected to increased flooding and sea-level rise, to persistent heat waves globally leading to excess deaths in the frail and elderly.

“It is unclear yet what impact this ruling will have going forward.

“However, this ruling does set a precedent on the government’s obligations to their citizens when it comes to climate change.

“Many governments around the world, even in Europe, have been slow on the energy transition due primarily to bureaucratic issues in the permit process or lack of investment in their energy grids.

“If this ruling paves the way for more citizens to seek redress from government inaction on climate change, we might see increased action on the energy transition, which benefits us all.”

Throngs of skywatchers across North America gazed upward at a blackened sun in the midday dusk on Monday, celebrating with cheers, music and matrimony the first total solar eclipse to darken the continent in seven years.

From a Mexican beach resort close to where the eclipse made landfall to the banks of the Ohio River and farther north beyond the roaring cascades of Niagara Falls at the U.S.-Canadian border, spellbound crowds reacted to the sight of “totality” with jaw-dropping expressions of awe and joy.

Buket Ozgunlu, Chairwoman of Paws Holding on to Life Association (Yasa Pati), takes disabled dogs for a ride with a makeshift train at a shelter in Ankara, Turkey. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan

An animal lover in Turkey, inspired by her paralyzed father, has built a train out of plastic barrels to give daily rides to the disabled dogs at a shelter outside the country’s capital Ankara.

Buket Ozgunlu, chairwoman of the Association of Paws Holding onto Life, has attached makeshift dog wagons to an all-terrain vehicle to take dogs out every day. She believes that, like people, the dogs need a change of scenery and, if they cannot walk, a drive will have to do.

“This is how the idea for the train came up: my father is also paralyzed and disabled. We felt the need to take him out (by car) and make him walk,” Ozgunlu said. 

“Then, I said our kids (the dogs) do not see anything, they must want this too because the ones who are disabled are more traumatized, they feel a different intensity of emotions.”

She said the shelter houses 560 dogs rescued from the streets, including 300 who have suffered physically.

Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Christina Fincher

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