Families from Europe and developing countries who are already suffering the effects of climate change on their means of subsistence and their traditional family occupation lodged a complaint on Thursday 24 May with the General Court of the EU against the European Union’s 2030 climate target which they argue is not high enough to protect their rights, the Climate Action Network-Europe (CAN Europe) has announced.
The climate target was set by the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament.
The families, mainly farmers, from seven countries (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Kenya and Fiji) and the Swedish Saami Youth Association Sáminuorra argue that the EU’s emissions reduction target of at least 40% by 2030, as compared to 1990 levels, is not sufficient to prevent dangerous climate change and not enough to protect their fundamental rights to life, health, occupation (bee-keeping, reindeer herding, agriculture) and property. The complaint targets three pieces of EU legislation (the ETS directive, the Lulucf regulation and the effort-sharing regulation) which, the complainants say, allow too high a level of emissions. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)