LISBON, Portugal — Six young Portuguese activists launched Thursday a European human rights case against 33 countries in the latest legal effort to force governments to step up their fight against climate change. The six filed a claim Thursday asking the European Court of Human Rights to hold the countries accountable for their allegedly inadequate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. They are backed by the Global Legal Action Network, a international nonprofit organization that challenges human rights violations, and a team of five London lawyers. Four of them live in central Portugal, where wildfires blamed in part on climate change killed more than 100 people in 2017. The two others live in Lisbon, an Atlantic coastal city threatened by rising sea levels.

Source: International New York Times September 03, 2020 11:37 UTC