SOURCE: swissinfo.ch
PHOTO: Adrian Grycuk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Newspapers in Switzerland have criticised a climate change ruling against the Swiss government by Europe\u2019s top human rights court, saying it risks undermining democracy and the political clout of environmental groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tuesday\u2019s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in favour of over 2,000 Swiss women who said the Swiss government had not done enough to combat climate change is expected to embolden more people to bring climate cases against governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As environmental groups celebrated the ruling by the Strasbourg court, newspaper editorials said the decision would fan fears that the judiciary was getting involved in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbsurd verdict against Switzerland: Strasbourg pursues climate policy from the judges bench,\u201d the Neue <\/em>Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung<\/em> (NZZ) wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Describing the ruling as \u201cactivist jurisprudence\u201d that could pave the way for \u201call kinds of claims\u201d, the paper said the elderly plaintiffs were ultimately pawns of environmental lobbies that used the court to circumvent democratic debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Switzerland, where referendums regularly test the limits of national policymaking, has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, from 1990 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government had proposed stronger measures to deliver the goal, but voters rebuffed them in a 2021 referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n