Finally 1.5˚C has legal force, following Strasbourg ruling
Hugely significant ruling from the ECtHR yesterday.
Finally, the Paris Agreement and the 1.5˚C global temperature limit has been given legally binding effect, in Switzerland, the UK and the 46 countries of the Council of Europe.
Which, at this stage, is bitter-sweet.
When the British Court of Appeal ruled against Plan B’s Article 8 case, this is what they said:
“5. … The fundamental difficulty which the Claimants face is that there is no authority from the European Court of Human Rights on which they can rely, citing the Paris Agreement as being relevant to the interpretation of the ECHR, Articles 2 and 8. They do rely on decisions of the highest courts of other parties to the ECHR, in particular the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, but, as the Judge observed in the present case, we do not know what the constitutional context was for such decisions. Section 2 of the HRA requires courts in this country to take into account relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. In general, we follow those decisions.”
ECtHR quotes this passage at §268 of their judgment.
Now, albeit too late in the day, that ‘fundamental difficulty’ has been removed.