How the climate seniors want to make history – and have sued Switzerland

The climate seniors believe that the federal government is not doing enough to combat climate change and thus violates their human rights. Since their lawsuit was rejected in Switzerland, they will be taking them to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on Wednesday, March 29.

who are they

The climate seniors are an association with more than 2000 retired members – their average age is 73 years. The association was founded in 2016. According to their website, the retirees also perform as speakers and workshops throughout Switzerland. However, your biggest project is the lawsuit against the Federal Council.

What they ask

The initiative for the lawsuit comes from the charity “Greenpeace”. After a climate lawsuit against the Dutch state was successful for the first time in 2015, people in this country wanted to follow suit. An expert report showed that something similar could also be possible in Switzerland if a group of people were found that were particularly affected by the climate crisis. This condition applies to pensioners: their health is particularly affected by the increasingly frequent heat waves.

In their lawsuit before the European Court of Human Rights, the association and four other women are now demanding that Switzerland take more action to combat climate change. According to them, the climate goals from the Paris climate agreement are not achievable with the current policy. As a result, Switzerland does not do enough to protect the health of the most vulnerable groups and thus violates their human rights. In concrete terms, they see their right to life and their right to private life violated.

As far back as 2016, the climate seniors urged the federal government to tighten up its climate policy – ​​and were turned down. The Federal Supreme Court and Federal Administrative Court rejected her subsequent complaint. The reasoning was as follows: The plaintiffs were not or not yet more affected by the crisis than other groups of people and it had not been proven that Swiss climate policy would harm the health of older women in this country. In addition, a change in climate policy must be addressed through political channels and not through legal channels. The climate seniors are now submitting the complaint to the highest instance: the European Court of Human Rights.

How the hearing is going so far

Jessica Simor, the applicants’ attorney, says older women are already suffering from the effects of climate change. Switzerland’s temperature rise is twice as strong as the global average. The heat waves increased the risk of kidney problems, asthma attacks and cardiovascular disease.

Swiss government representative Alain Chablais counters that the complaint is an attempt to suggest that Switzerland is “inactive,” according to a statement from the SDA. He also argues that this is not the right place to decide on Swiss climate policy.

What’s so special about it

As we know, the wheels of politics grind slowly in Switzerland and elsewhere. It takes a lot of work, support and above all patience to get things done on a political level. Addressing unsatisfactory climate policies through legal channels may be the more efficient and faster path to change. As the Tagesanzeiger writes, judgment is only one effect of this approach – the other is the attention generated in this way.

If Strasbourg judges the case differently than Switzerland, the federal government should reopen the case. Should Switzerland be condemned by the European Court of Justice, it would have to tighten up its climate policy. And not only they, but all of European politics would be affected by the verdict. In the future, a country’s citizens could sue the state if its climate policy violates their human rights.

Regardless of what the final verdict will be, this matter is important. It is a precedent: it is the first ruling on climate protection as a violation of human rights.

The ruling is expected later this year.