The historic climate lawsuit against Switzerland was brought by a group of older women.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of KlimaSeniorinnen who claimed that their government’s inadequate efforts to combat climate change put them at risk of dying during heatwaves. This association of Swiss women was established in 2016 and has more than 2,500 members.
The Swiss women said their government violated their right to life by failing to cut emissions in line that limits global warming to 1,5 C to keep off the most severe consequences of temperature change.Switzerland is warming at more than twice the global rate and its glaciers are melting fast. Swiss government prepared a plan with deeper emissions cuts, but voters rejected it in 2021 because it was seen as too oppressive.
U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that older people were among those at highest risk of temperature-related deaths during heatwaves.
After KlimaSeniorinnen’s legal case was dismissed in 2020 at the Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court, they turned to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France; in April 2024 they won the case. The Swiss justice ministry explained that the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling is final and must be implemented.The verdict obliges Swiss federal government to take greater action on reducing emissions, including revising its 2030 emissions reductions targets to get in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1,5 C.