The climate in Strasbourg – the judgments and their impact on global climate law

The judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in April 2024 represent the Court’s first foray into climate change law. The climate has been the source of much regulation in international law and litigation across the world has proliferated since the 2015 Paris Agreement. How, then, does the Court engage with the specialized regime of the Paris Agreement and UNFCCC in its recent jurisprudence? Is there a potential for this judgment to have an impact on the interpretation of international climate law? The KlimaSeniorinnen judgment is perhaps the most authoritative case of international climate change litigation to date, and has the opportunity to influence the consideration of reoccurring themes in climate litigation. This article will lay out the interaction and potential impacts of these judgments on international law, as well as climate change litigation. It will show that the Court has concretized the position of the Conference of the Parities to the Paris Agreement as a strong, normative influencer in the climate change regime, and the role of courts as protectors of human rights against the adverse effects of climate change is vital.