On 18 July 2023, the Swiss electorate voted 59.1% in favour of a climate protection law to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Austria’s population must continue to wait: its existing climate protection law has not contained any greenhouse gas reduction targets since 2020. The co-governing ÖVP considers them unnecessary. South Tyrol’s government is also putting off its citizens: for four years now, the regional government has been working on the “Climate Plan South Tyrol 2024”, which is still not available; while the Slovenian government is currently inviting citizens, municipalities and experts to contribute to the drafting of a climate protection law.

Is climate protection a human right?

While people in many places continue to wait for climate protection laws, the number of high-profile class actions, protests and climate complaints is increasing. In the last two years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has received five climate lawsuits. Among them is one from Switzerland, where an association of Swiss senior citizens has accused the government of lacking ambition in the fight against climate change. They see their right to health endangered by the climate crisis and the resulting heatwaves. In the summer of 2023, the ECtHR in Strasbourg will hear the climate lawsuits and the question of whether climate protection is a human right.

Climate lawsuits: increasing the pressure

Climate lawsuits are also gaining importance at a national level: at the beginning of 2023, twelve children and young people in Austria filed a lawsuit against the Republic at the Constitutional Court. They argued that their children’s rights and future are being endangered by the lack of or insufficient measures against global warming. The court rejected their complaint on formal grounds in July 2023. In Germany, however, a climate lawsuit in 2021 led to improvements in the Climate Protection Act.

Literature:

www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/de/home/themen/klima/dossiers/klimaschutzgesetz.html (de, en, it, fr), www.umwelt.bz.it/aktuelles/presse/uw-verb%C3%A4nde-pm-landesregierung-wo-bleibt-unser-klimaplan-cs-cara-giunta-provinciale-dov%C3%A8-il-nostro-piano-per-il-clima.html (de, it), https://orf.at/stories/3320828/ (de), https://orf.at/stories/3319875/  (de), www.sn.at/panorama/oesterreich/kinder-klimaklage-vom-vfgh-formal-zurueckgewiesen-141633700 (de), https://pic.si/varstvo-okolja/javni-posvet-o-predlogu-zakona-o-podnebnih-spremembah/ (sl), https://skupnostobcin.si/2023/06/obcine-in-zakon-o-podnebnih-spremembah-javni-posvet-22-6/ (sl)