L’obbligazione climatica davanti alla Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo: la sentenza KlimaSeniorinnen e le sue ricadute comparate

The climate obligation before the European Court of Human Rights: the KlimaSeniorinnen decision and its comparative implications

Abstract

This commentary analyzes the ECtHR’s ‘KlimaSeniorinnen’ decision from two perspectives: on the one hand, it verifies how the ruling responded to the interpretative doubts that had arisen in domestic climate litigation regarding the existence of a climate obligation stemming from Article 8 ECHR. On the other hand, it analyzes the repercussions that the judgment may have on the future development of European climate litigation, from the cases still pending before the ECtHR to the Italian climate case ‘Giudizio Universale’. Ultimately, the paper suggests that the Klimaseniorinnen ruling represents a watershed in European climate litigation, as it will to set the tone for the future activity of national judges, who will have to acknowledge the positive obligation of states to combat climate change and the role of the judiciary to verify the fulfillment of this obligation.

Keywords: Climate change; Human rights; Positive obligations; Climate litigation; Separation of powers