Have European countries violated human rights by inaction in the field of climate?

Geneva/Brussels, March 24 (TASR) - Citizens affected by climate change are suing the governments of more than 30 European countries in three separate cases at the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that states' inaction violates their human rights. These are the first such cases to be heard at the court in Strasbourg, France, and could result in the governments being ordered to cut carbon dioxide emissions much faster than currently planned. This is what you should know.
WHICH THREE CASES ARE THERE?
The first case, which will be heard next Wednesday, focuses on the health effects of the heat caused by climate change, in a case brought by thousands of elderly Swiss women against the Swiss government in a six-year legal battle. On Wednesday, the court will also hear a case brought by Damien Carême, a member of the European Parliament for France's Green Party, who challenged France's refusal to take more ambitious climate action. A third case, due to be heard after the summer, involves six Portuguese youths who are suing 33 countries - including all 27 member states of the European Union, Great Britain, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. They, too, argue that these countries have violated their rights and should be ordered to take more ambitious measures to address climate change. Six other climate proceedings are currently underway.
WHAT RIGHTS COULD HAVE BEEN VIOLATED?
In these cases, the Court will assess for the first time whether climate change policies, if they are too weak, may violate people's human rights enshrined in the European Convention. Swiss women say that by failing to cut emissions in line with a plan that limits global warming to 1.5C, Bern has violated, among other things, their right to life. The case refers to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – which found with a very high degree of confidence that women and older adults are among those at highest risk of heat-related mortality – and uses the medical records of the complainants to demonstrate their vulnerability.