Strasbourg, seat of the European Court of Human Rights, was this week the capital in the fight against climate change. Three separate cases were rendered, on the same day, by the Grand Chamber of the ECHR.
Only one country, Switzerland, was ultimately condemned, in some way, for climate inaction. But the high court proposes rules for future prosecutions and recognizes the importance of the Paris agreement on global warming. The Paris agreement is a benchmark for environmental law, notably in terms of international law, says Élisabeth Lambert, research director at the CNRS at the Law and Social Change laboratory in Nantes. The ECHR will favor cases brought by associations which defend fundamental rights related to climate, says Lambert. But in two other cases, the plaintiffs were dismissed by the judges of the EU's highest human rights court. The complaints were brought by a former mayor of Grande-Synthe (North), who feared the flooding of his town and damage to his home, and by 6 young Portuguese people born between 1999 and 2012.