Peoples Climate Case - families and youth take the EU to court over its failure to address the climate crisis

People’s Climate Case is the first climate case that is brough to European Courts. It has been initiated in 2018 by farmer, forester, hotel owner and animal herder families from Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Romania, Kenya, Fiji and the youth association representing the indigenous Saami youth in Sweden. These families and youth have one thing in common: their lives, livelihoods and fundamental rights are severely affected by the climate crisis. Instead of hearing claims of the people affected by climate change, European courts focused on discussing whether these people can have a right to be protected by the EU law as they are not unique to be hit by the climate crisis. While this criteria disrespects the rationale of fundamental rights which is to grant protection to every single person and disregards the magnitude of the climate crisis, the plaintiffs kept mobilizing in their countries for increased climate action.