Climate Change is Not a ‘Human Rights’ Issue

Apr 11, 2024 by Jill

by Ben Pile, Daily Sceptic:

As has been widely reported this week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that the Swiss Government failed to respect the human rights of a group of frail, elderly women in the face of the ‘climate emergency’. The decision requires the Swiss Government to implement more radical policies to meet the country’s commitments to the Paris agreement, including increasing the tax on fossil fuels. But the implications of this new precedent affect every state that‘s a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the U.K. What evidence did the court draw from, and what drove its decisions?

The case was brought by five applicants, the first of which was Verein Klima Seniorinnen Schweiz (VKS) – Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland – a Swiss green NGO funded by Greenpeace and other philanthropic foundations. The other four applicants, members of VKS, were senior women whose testimony explains that their age-related medical conditions are exacerbated by heatwaves. One, who had chronic gout and a pacemaker, had twice fainted and had had to “adapt her lifestyle” to cope with hot weather. Another, who suffered from unspecified “cardiovascular health issues” had to stay at home “with the blinds down and the air conditioning turned on”. A third suffered from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was made to feel “isolated” during heatwaves. And the fourth, who suffered from asthma, “complained that the heatwaves had the effect of taking away all her energy” – which meant that “she could not face leaving her home and going for a swim”.

No doubt this is a shameful litany of torture at the hands of a cruelly indifferent Swiss Government. But what evidence is there of a ‘human rights’ violation, and how will the ECHR’s judgement improve things for Switzerland’s old ladies?

Read here

The absurd ruling that shows lawyers and judges are mounting an insurgency and we MUST quit the ECHR by Frank Furedi, Daily Mail

What Strasbourg’s climate ruling means for Europe by Alexander Horne, Spectator

Is climate change really a human rights matter? by Andrew Tettenborn, Spectator