This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including a landmark win for climate justice and human rights and new, worrisome data on the world’s temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations.
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1. Swiss Government’s Climate Change Inaction Violates Human Rights, European Court Rules
Europe’s top human rights court on Tuesday ruled in favour of a group of elderly Swiss women, who accused their government of violating fundamental rights by failing to adequately tackle the climate crisis, a win hailed as “historic” and a “huge success.”
KlimaSeniorinnen (Senior Women for Climate Protection) – a group of more than 2,000 women aged 64 and over – argued before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that their government’s failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions had violated their human rights. The women contend that more frequent and intense heatwaves – a result of climate change – are infringing on their rights to life and health.
“Today’s ruling… leaves no doubt: the climate crisis is a human rights crisis, and States have human rights obligations to act urgently and effectively and in line with the best available science to prevent further devastation and harm to people and the environment,” Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) senior attorney Joie Chowdhury said in a statement.
Read more here.
2. World Sees 10th Consecutive Hottest Month on Record as March Temperatures Soar to Unseen Levels
In a press release on Tuesday, the EU Earth observation agency Copernicus said the global average temperature for the past twelve months is the highest on record, 1.58C above pre-industrial levels and 0.7C above the 1991-2020 average. The average global surface temperature last month was 14.14C, 0.10C higher than 2016, the previous hottest March on record.
Despite the gradual weakening of El Niño, a weather pattern associated with the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that last year brought unprecedented heat across the world, marine air temperatures remained “at an unusually high level,” the agency said. The average global sea surface temperature was 21.07C, the highest monthly value since records began.
Read more here.
3. No Sign of Greenhouse Gases Rise Slowing as Scientists Confirm Record Highs in 2023
According to US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest data, levels of all three main planet-warming, human-caused greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2023, albeit growing at a slower pace than previous years.
Global concentrations of CO2, Earth’s most important heat-trapping gas generated from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and by far the most important contributor to climate change, reached a significant milestone, averaging at 419.3 parts per million (ppm) throughout 2023. This represented a 2.8 ppm increase from the year prior – the third-largest in the past decade. Notably, atmospheric CO2 now exceeds pre-industrial levels by over 50%.
Read more here.
4. UN Climate Chief Calls on People to ‘Raise their Voices’ Ahead of Election, As Next Two Years Will Determine Future of Our Planet
In a pivotal year for democracy, where roughly half of the human population is called to the polls, the United Nations climate chief called on citizens to “raise their voices” to demand bolder climate action.
With the relentless rise in air and sea temperatures globally, time is running out to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
Speaking at London’s Chatham House on Wednesday, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell laid out key interventions needed ahead of the next COP summit and their long-term significance.
“The next two years are essential to save the planet,” Stiell said, stressing that cutting fossil fuel pollution and investing in climate mitigation and adaptation will determine which countries will “rise up the ladder [of living standards] or fall.”
Read more here.
5. Controversial EU Anti-Deforestation Law to Go Ahead as Scheduled, Environment Chief Says
The controversial European Union’s anti-deforestation law will come into force at the end of 2024 as initially planned, its environment commissioner said during a visit to a cocoa-producing cooperative in Ivory Coast on Sunday.
Last month, an Austria-led coalition of 20 of the 27 EU member states called for a revision of the law proposed by the European Commission in 2021 and formally adopted last year, which aims to crack down on commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation for agricultural expansion, targeting beef, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber and other agricultural products sold within the EU. They argued that the legislation – the first of its kind in the world – would hurt European farmers, who are also subject to the new rules.
Read more here.
