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The youngest plaintiff is only eight years old: six Portuguese children and youth are taking extraordinary climate action against Germany and 32 other countries. They have now achieved stage success.
Six Portuguese children and young people are putting pressure on Germany and 32 other European countries in the fight against climate change: the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has given the green light to their extraordinary case against Germany and 32 others countries. He decided to proceed with the lawsuit filed in early September. The complaint will be given priority due to the importance and urgency of the issues raised, the ECHR said. Affected countries now have until the end of February to comment on the allegations.
The youngest candidate is only eight, the oldest 21. They accuse all EU countries, as well as Norway, Russia, Great Britain, Turkey, Switzerland and Ukraine of exacerbating the climate crisis, thus endangering the future of their generation. Their Goal: The ECHR should encourage climate violators to set their national targets higher and to reduce emissions caused by them and their international companies around the world.
Occasion: devastating bushfires in 2017
The Strasbourg decision aroused much jubilation among the applicants in Portugal. “It gives me great hope to know that the judges of the European Court of Human Rights recognize the urgency of our case,” said 12-year-old André Oliveira from Lisbon, who is attending with her 15-year-old sister Sofia. When she filed the lawsuit in early September, the youngest plaintiff, Mariana Agostinho, said: “I am very afraid of having to live on a sick planet.”
The specific reason for the action of the six young Portuguese from Leiria and Lisbon was the devastating forest fires in their country of origin in 2017, in which 110 people were killed. Photos of the Pedrogão Grande region near Leiria have gone around the world: desperate motorists surrounded by flames have posted heartbreaking live videos. A country road became a death trap and many people were burned to death in their cars. Scientists have confirmed that climate change played a role in this disaster, the complaint now says.
Unique dress
The application was prepared with the help of the non-governmental organization Global Legal Action Network (GLAN). The organization speaks of “unprecedented action”. The ECHR’s decision is now “an important step towards a possible revolutionary judgment on climate change”. The vast majority of the lawsuits filed in the Strasbourg court have been rejected and have not reached that stage, he said. “These brave young people have overcome a major obstacle in the process of reaching a verdict that will force European governments to accelerate their efforts on climate change,” GLAN legal counsel Gerry Liston said in response.
The case is unique in that you must actually go to a national court before going to the ECHR. In the case of tackling cross-border climate change, however, it is not possible for adolescents to raise their concerns in 33 different countries and carry them forward to the highest national courts, but that was the argument that has now been successful.
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