Two years after the landmark judgment of the European Court of Human rights (ECtHR) in the case of the Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland (KlimaSeniorinnen) Switzerland is still ignoring the Court’s verdict. Switzerland is declining the establishment of a national climate advisory body to assess and monitor Swiss climate policy over the long term, as it informed the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe[1]. The Committee of Ministers will discuss Switzerland’s latest submission early in December[2].
In April 2024, the KlimaSeniorinnen made European legal history[3]. The European Court of Human Rights found that Switzerland had failed to comply with its human rights obligations due to critical shortcomings in its climate action. In particular, the Court identified the absence of sufficient quantification of national greenhouse gas emission limits, through a carbon budget or an equivalent method.
In its newest submission Switzerland proposes merely that an already existing scientific network[4] should in future hold regular exchanges with the Swiss minister of the environment. It argues that more knowledge or greater reliance on science would make little difference and that a climate council’s limited added value would not justify the additional resources required. Switzerland also says that it will examine whether the internal evaluation and monitoring of climate policy by the authorities should be “specified more precisely” in the CO2 Act for the period after 2030.
Cordelia Bähr, lead lawyer of the KlimaSeniorinnen Switzerland, said: “The Swiss authorities misunderstand the purpose of a national climate advisory body. It is not simply to produce more knowledge. It should independently monitor and assess climate policy, identify likely failures to meet targets at an early stage, and report them publicly. The law should require the political authorities to respond to its findings and recommendations. A scientific network lacks the statutory mandate, independence and resources to perform this role. Regular talks with the minister of the environment are not enough. Refusing a national climate advisory body that would have helped it to comply with the judgment and to monitor the effectiveness of its climate policy over the long term, while failing to provide a sufficiently robust alternative, cannot constitute an adequate response to the Committee of Ministers.”
Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti, Co-President of the KlimaSeniorinnen, said: “We won a historic victory in 2024. More than two years later, we refuse to allow that victory to remain only on paper while Switzerland continues to delay effective climate action and puts our shared future at risk. After a summer of intense heatwaves that underscored the immediacy of the crisis and its devastating health-impacts, we strongly urge the Committee of Ministers to intensify its supervision and to continue its supervision until Switzerland has fully complied, in law and in practice, with its obligations arising from the judgment. Switzerland was found in violation by Europe’s highest human rights court. It must now give full effect to that judgment.”
The Committee of Ministers‘ monitoring of the KlimaSeniorinnen judgment impacts 46 European countries. It will test the European human rights system’s ability to protect 700 million people from the climate emergency and define the practical scope of climate case law.
Notes
[1] Communication from Switzerland of 30 September 2026
[2] https://www.coe.int/en/web/cm/-/1577-dh-meeting-december-2026
[4] Forum for Climate and Global Change (ProClim) https://proclim.scnat.ch/en
The newest submissions to the Committee of Ministers
- Fifth submission by the KlimaSeniorinnen Switzerland with the legal report on the implementation of the KlimaSeniorinnen judgment: «Legal Entrenchment and Institutional Design of a National Climate Advisory Body in Switzerland» by the Swiss law professors Charlotte Blattner and Daniela Thurnherr
- Submission by the Greenpeace International and Climate Litigation Network to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, including an expert report from Dr Alina Averchenkova of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE), a recognised international expert on climate action bodies, and a new study on carbon budgets, which shows that Switzerland is not on track.
Contacts:
Cordelia Bähr, Head Lawyer of Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland: [email protected], +41 78 801 70 34
Yvonne Anliker, Media Communications Manager, Greenpeace Switzerland, [email protected], +41 79 306 53 42
