The move was sparked by the massive wildfires that struck Portugal in 2017, killing over 100 people and charring swathes of the country.
Aged 11 to 24, the young people say they are suffering from anxiety over their health and "having to live with a climate that is getting hotter and hotter" with more natural disasters.
Some claim allergies and breathing problems both during the fires and after, conditions at risk of persisting if the planet keeps warming.
Underscoring the potential impact of the case in terms of forcing countries to act, the Strasbourg-based court's Grand Chamber will examine the arguments on September 27, something that is reserved for exceptional cases.
The youths argue that excessive carbon emissions are infringing in particular the right to life and the right to the respect of private and family life.
"This is truly a David and Goliath case," said Gearoid O Cuinn, director of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which is supporting the youths' case.
"Never before have so many countries had to defend themselves in front of any court anywhere in the world," he said.
Activists are increasingly turning to courts to force greater efforts by governments to tackle climate change, amid warnings the world is falling short of the 2015 Paris Agreement goals for limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above mid-19th century levels.
In August, a court in the US state of Montana ruled in favour of a group of youths who accused it of violating their rights to a clean environment.
- 'Game changer' -
An ECHR ruling, expected in several months, in favour of the plaintiffs would be binding on the 46 member states of the Council of Europe and potentially constitute legal jurisprudence on climate cases.
Nations would have to "rapidly accelerate their climate mitigation efforts", said Gerry Liston, a GLAN lawyer assisting the youths.
"In legal terms, it would be a game changer."
But first, the court will rule on the admissibility of the case, since the Portuguese youths filed directly to the ECHR without first seeking recourse in domestic courts.
They argue that trying to file separate cases in all 32 countries would be an "excessive and disproportionate burden" on an issue requiring urgent attention.
An ECHR source confirmed that it was a "unique case" in terms of the number of nations targeted by a single complaint.
The court has not previously ruled on member obligations with regards to climate change.
The youths say governments are contributing to warmer temperatures with carbon emissions that are provoking heat waves and wildfires in their country in particular.
"Governments around the world have the power to stop this, and Europe's governments are choosing not to stop this," said Catarina dos Santos Mota, one of the young Portuguese.
Two other climate cases involving France and Switzerland were examined by the ECHR in March, though no rulings have yet been issued.
According to the UN Environment Programme, the number of legal cases worldwide linked to climate challenges doubled between 2017 and 2022.
The 'normal kids' taking countries to court over climate
Lisbon (AFP) Sept 20, 2023 -
Claudia Agostinho decided she had to do something when she saw her home "covered in ashes" from murderous forest fires that ravaged central Portugal.
The 24-year-old nurse is one of six young people aged between 11 and 24 who are taking 32 countries to the European Court of Human Rights for their inaction on climate.
"It was scary," recalled Agostinho, who was a teenager when the fires that killed more than 100 people in 2017 came to her door.
"It was that fear and anxiety that pushed me to act," she said, insisting that the wildfires that ravaged large swathes of Portugal every year are a direct result of climate change.
Another one of the six, Sofia Oliveira, said the endlessly repeating disasters make her want to "flee this world".
"The court has a lot of power and we want to have our voice heard," said the 18-year-old from the suburbs of Lisbon.
"We want to push governments to act."
The milestone case brought by the six young Portuguese, which will be heard by the court in Strasbourg on September 27, accuses 32 European countries of not doing enough to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
"There has been cases taken by young people about climate change in other courts before, but this is the first to be heard by the European Court of Human rights related to the rights of young people," said Gerry Liston, a lawyer with the British-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which is representing them.
- 'Solutions exist' -
And the stakes could not be higher. If they win, the court's ruling would be "legally binding" on the governments, Liston added.
At the beginning, it was lawyer and GLAN volunteer Rita Mota who gave Claudia Agostinho the idea to go to court.
She was then joined by her brother Martim, 20, her sister Mariana, 11, and their neighbour Catarina Mota, 23 (who is no relation to Rita). Later Sofia Oliveira and her brother Andre, 15, whose father is a friend of Rita Mota's, added their names.
"They are normal kids, they were not at all recruited. It was them who told me that they wanted to do something to stop this happening again," Mota told AFP.
This all began before Greta Thunberg's school strikes and the huge young people's climate marches, she said.
It all started slowly. "GLAN is a small organisation. We had to crowdfund" and help give the young people media training, said Mota.
But with time the group began to grow more confident and filed their complaint to the court in 2020. "The fact that they were doing something tangible and concrete I think helped diminish the feeling of impotence they had," she added.
"We wanted to show that solutions exist, that we can still change things and that we shouldn't give up," said Oliveira, who is proud that their fight has been backed by Thunberg and Hollywood star Leonardo Di Caprio.
- 'Right to a healthy life' -
"If we win our case, governments that don't hold to their promises will be sanctioned -- because people's lives are at risk," her younger brother Andre added.
Because he has asthma, the 15-year-old is not allowed to do sport when it gets hot. "It is getting worse and worse and we are more and more afraid.
"It will be even worse for the generation of our children and we cannot allow that," said the young high school student, who became aware of the climate crisis early from talking to his parents, who are biology graduates.
Claudia Agostinho, the oldest of the plaintiffs, said that coming from a rural area, where attachment to family is important, she had been brought up to believe that you have a responsibility to the children you wish to bring into the world.
"We have to have measures to guarantee the right to a healthy life, which is the most basic of all human rights -- and that is all we are asking of governments. It's the basics," she said.
Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
