Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
In 2016, a group of Swiss women launched a lawsuit against their government for not doing enough to protect citizens from the impact of climate change. The 2,000-strong group, aged 64 and over, argued that they were particularly affected because older women are more vulnerable than others to heat-related illnesses. Yesterday, they made history. Europe’s top human rights court sided with them after Swiss courts rejected the case – the first time an international court has ruled on climate change and the first confirming countries have an obligation to protect people from its consequences. Two other cases, one brought by a French mayor and another by a group of young people from Portugal, were rejected on procedural grounds. Switzerland said it would study the decision by the European Court of Human Rights. The complainants will have to hope they don’t take too long: according to the EU’s climate change agency, temperatures in March hit a record for the tenth month in a row.