STRASBOURG: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday began hearing a case brought by six Portuguese youths against 32 nations for not doing enough to stop global warming, the latest bid to secure climate justice through the courts.

“The case concerns... the impact of climate change,” said Siofra O’Leary, president of the Strasbourg-based court’s 17-judge Grand Chamber, “resulting among other things in heatwaves and wildfires affecting the applicants’ lives and health”.

The youths, aged 11 to 24, say they are suffering from anxiety over their health and natural disasters.

Their move to file a complaint with the Strasbourg-based court was sparked by the devastating wildfires that struck Portugal in 2017, killing more than 100 people and charring swathes of the country.

Some plaintiffs claim allergies and breathing problems both during the fires and after, conditions at risk of persisting if the planet keeps warming.

“European governments are not managing to protect us,” said Andre Oliveira, 15, one of the six involved.

“We’re on the front lines of climate change in Europe: even in February it’s sometimes 30 degrees. The heatwaves are getting more and more serious,”

he added. Andre and his fellow plaintiffs say the 27 European Union member states along with Russia, Turkiye, Switzerland, Norway and Britain have all failed to sufficiently limit greenhouse gas emissions, affecting their life and health.

In concrete legal terms, they complain of infringements of their rights to life and respect for private life — articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

More than 80 representatives and other lawyers for the states were present for the hearing’s opening, though Russia was not represented and the plaintiffs have withdrawn their complaints against Ukraine.

The ECHR is taking the case seriously, labelling it a “matter of priority” and passing it to the body’s top judges. Two other climate cases involving France and Switzerland were examined by the ECHR in March, though no rulings have yet been issued.

The Grand Chamber must first rule on the admissibility of the Portuguese case, since the youths filed directly to the ECHR without first seeking recourse in domestic courts.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2023