"The ECHR’s First Climate Ruling: What Does it Mean?," 09 April 2024

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has today ruled that insufficient action to tackle climate change is a violation of human rights.

...The court ruled that Switzerland’s failure to do enough to cut its greenhouse gas emissions breached the rights to respect for family and private life of some of its most vulnerable citizens...

It said Swiss authorities had failed to quantify how they would cut national greenhouse gas emissions, through a carbon budget or otherwise, and had failed to meet past emission reduction targets.

...[The ECHR laid] out minimum governance standards that states should seek to follow. These include setting carbon budgets and interim targets, keeping these updated based on the best available evidence, and being transparent about how well they are being met.

The judgements now open the way for a number of other climate-related lawsuits which had been adjourned...

The decision is also expected to lead to fresh climate litigation against governments, at a national level, at the ECHR, and against major polluters. “Businesses are required to respect fundamental human rights under various instruments, so this is directly transposable to obligations for large companies,” said Sandvig [partner at law firm Simonsen Vogt Wiig]...