Five Polish citizens are taking their government to court over its ‘regressive’ climate stance and failure to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The claimants include a farmer, a plant wholesaler, an ecotourism business owner, parents and a youth climate campaigner, all impacted directly by the intensifying weather events the country is seeing as climate change worsens.
Three of the legal cases have launched today – with two further cases launching later this month.
ClientEarth lawyer Sophie Marjanac said: “Climate change is having tangible impacts on people in Poland, today, and will only worsen in future. The government must take responsibility and reduce Polish emissions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement to protect the claimants from the severe effects of climate change.
“These lawsuits make it very difficult for leaders in Poland to ignore the serious effects of climate change in their country. The Polish Government must guarantee people the right to a healthy environment and the right to live in a safe and stable climate – it has a legal duty under its civil code and under human rights law to do so.”
The legal challenges will make the case that everyone has the right to live in a healthy environment including a safe and stable climate and this right is under threat due to the Polish government’s lack of action to reduce emissions.
Climate change lawsuits drew huge attention recently on a global scale with a Dutch court ordering Shell to cut their emission for the first time as well. The Polish case is one of the few lawsuits in the CE region so far.
Source: clientearth.org
Coverpicture: unsplash
