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- Imogen Fawkes & Adam Durbin
- BBC news
More than 2,000 women are suing the Swiss government, claiming that government policies on climate change violate their rights to life and health.
The case is the first time the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has heard a case on the human rights impacts of climate change.
It follows six years of unsuccessful battles in the Swiss courts.
Temperatures in Switzerland are rising faster than the global average, and heat waves are occurring more frequently than ever before.
Women with an average age of 73, who call themselves the Swiss Climate Seniors Club, say climate change is putting their human rights, health and even lives at risk. Evidence to court includes medical records.
They want to order ECHR to do more for Switzerland to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
One campaigner, Elizabeth Stern, told the BBC:
“Some people say why complain and die anyway. But we don’t want to die just because the Swiss government has not succeeded in coming up with a decent climate policy.”
The European Climate and Health Observatory says projected increases in average temperatures are likely to have “severe public health implications” across Europe, especially among older people.
Over the past 20 years, heat stroke mortality in Europe over the age of 65 has increased by more than 30%.
The Swiss government does not deny that climate change may affect health, but says it cannot be linked to the health of older women in particular.
If the woman wins, the case could set a precedent for all 46 Member States of the European Court of Justice.
According to climate scientists, if we want to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we need to slow the temperature rise. They say we need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100.
According to the United Nations climate agency IPCC, Europe will be vulnerable to flooding from extreme rainfall if global temperature rise cannot be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Extreme temperatures can also increase the risk of wildfires, as we saw in Europe last summer. In France and Germany, about seven times the average land burned between January 2022 and his mid-July.
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