Don’t let Switzerland off the hook on climate justice

In April 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) made a landmark ruling that Switzerland's weak climate policies put people's health and their lives at risk, and ordered that the Swiss Government must set a carbon budget in line with the 1.5ºC goal to protect people's human rights.

This was a breakthrough for climate justice as it was the first ruling by an international court of its kind to clearly state that protecting people from climate harm is necessary - a matter of fairness, health, and basic human rights. And this history was kick-started by a group of senior Swiss women, the KlimaSeniorinnen, when they filed their lawsuit against the Swiss government in 2016. As elderly women, they are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of heatwaves. For the KlimaSeniorinnen, many of whom were involved in the women's suffrage movement (Switzerland was one of the last countries to recognise women's right to vote, in 1971), it is not only a fight that they started for themselves, but also for their children and grandchildren.

A group of senior Swiss women lay giant band-aids on newly exposed earth between the melting Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron Glaciers, to protest the Swiss government's inaction on the growing climate emergency and its impacts on health. © Miriam Künzli / Ex-Press / Greenpeace

Why the Council of Europe matters

The European Court of Human Rights is part of the Council of Europe, which exists to promote and protect rights and democracy across its 46 member states. After a judgement, it is the duty of the Committee of Ministers, made up of ministers from member States of the Council of Europe, to ensure governments comply with the Court's decisions.

The Committee of Ministers' job is straightforward: make Switzerland act. Instead, at their September 15-17 meeting in Strasbourg, ministers praised Switzerland for its progress on implementing the Court's orders, even though the government has not changed its carbon budget or taken any other meaningful actions since the judgment.

A carbon budget is not just some numbers on a piece of paper. To avoid the most devastating consequences for human rights now and in the future, global warming must stay below 1.5°C. To achieve this, greenhouse gas emissions worldwide must be reduced very rapidly. This is because the remaining global amount of CO2 the atmosphere can absorb without warming above 1.5°C is very small. Scientists refer to this as the carbon budget. The Court found that to protect human rights, Switzerland must prove that its climate strategy effectively respects the global carbon budget and the 1.5°C limit.

Switzerland has so far failed to provide this evidence. Rather, scientific calculations clearly show that Switzerland's current climate strategy is using far too much of the global CO2 budget available to meet the 1.5°C limit. Switzerland's climate policy is therefore not compatible with compliance with the 1.5°C limit - and is therefore not in line with human rights.

Time to act

If Switzerland gets away with ignoring the ruling, other governments will follow. That would set a dangerous precedent: a Europe where leaders sacrifice their citizens' health for fossil fuel profits, while claiming to be climate leaders.

KlimaSeniorinnen Co-President Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti said: "We demand that the well-founded judgment of the ECtHR is not watered down by politicians. We wonder what else it will take for countries to realise that climate change is not a left-right issue."

The Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland (KlimaSeniorinnen) are taking the Swiss government to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg because their health is threatened by heat waves made worse by the climate crisis. A delegation (Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti und Anne Mahrer) has sailed the Rhine from Basel to Strasbourg onboard the Greenpeace ship MV Beluga-II, to make a symbolic in-person delivery of their claim to the European Court of Human Rights. A large bunting made of hundreds of flaglets designed by people that support Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland's plea was displayed outside the court's building. © Greenpeace / Emanuel Büchler

Polls show that nearly nine in ten people want stronger climate action. The European Court of Human Rights has now said that governments must deliver it. But governments only seem to act when inaction has a cost.

The Council of Europe needs to hear, loud and clear, that people will not accept empty promises while governments continue to squander precious time and put lives at risk.

The KlimaSeniorinnen have done their part. The court has done its part. Now it's time for governments to do theirs. The Council of Europe must enforce this ruling, and set a benchmark for climate justice across Europe and beyond. It's a prerequisite for respecting the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights…the Council of Europe's core mission.