An association of senior Swiss women has taken the Swiss government to court over inaction on climate change. It's the first time the European Court of Human Rights has heard a climate case, and it will be handing down its landmark ruling on April 9. It joins a growing number of cases challenging government climate change inaction worldwide, including in Australia.
Louise Fournier is a Legal Counsel at Greenpeace International, and has worked closely with the women on the case. The women have argued that their right to life, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, has been violated by the government's inaction on climate change. Ms Fournier explains the court's decision would be binding not only for Switzerland, but also for all of the 46 Council of Europe member states.
"I just give you one example, how sort of international we have become or how diverse in terms of our impact. There is a group in South Korea that calls themselves 60 plus, and they just started, they just had their first press conference last week... and they are actually following step-by-step the way we did it."
They say the government has unlawfully breached this duty of care in failing to mitigate climate change and its effects in the Torres Strait. She says even the migration of birds has been affected, and ancestral graves are being washed into the sea. The final hearing for the case will be held at the end of April, and the court's decision is expected to be delivered by the end of the year.
In a landmark 2015 case, the Urgenda Foundation and 886 people successfully took the Dutch government to court for inaction on climate change.The Netherlands is now considered to have some of the strongest climate policies in the world. Across local, regional and international courts, Ms Nolan says these cases are developing a strong platform from which individuals and groups can pressure their governments to take tangible action.