(CNN) — The European Court of Human Rights will on Wednesday hear an “unprecedented” lawsuit brought by six young people against 32 European countries, alleging they are failing to tackle the man-made climate crisis.

The plaintiffs, who are Portuguese between the ages of 11 and 24, will argue that they are on the front lines of climate change and will ask the court to force the countries to immediately accelerate their action on the issue.

This is the first climate change case brought before the European Court of Human Rights and is the largest case, out of a total of three climate change lawsuits, heard by the court.

The stakes are high. A victory would force countries to advance their climate goals quickly and would also provide a major boost to other climate demands around the world, especially those that argue that countries have a human rights obligation to protect society from the climate crisis.

However, if the court rules against the plaintiff, this could harm other climate claims.

“This is truly a David and Goliath case, with an unprecedented scale (and) potential impact,” said Gearóid Ó Cuinn, director of the Global Legal Action Network, or GLAN, which is supporting the plaintiffs’ case.

“Never before have so many countries had to defend themselves anywhere in the world,” he told CNN.

Deadly forest fire

The road to Wednesday’s hearing began six years ago. “It all started in 2017 with a fire,” said Catarina Mota, one of the plaintiffs.

Destroyer Forest fires burned 500,000 hectares of Portugal and they killed more than 100 people that year. When the fire spread to Mota’s residence, his school and other schools in the area were closed. “The smoke was everywhere,” he told CNN.

This disaster sparked demand. Mota started talking to her friend, and now fellow plaintiff, Cláudia Duarte Agostinho, and with the help of GLAN, they gathered four more plaintiffs, all impacted by the 2017 fires.

A woman reacts to flames approaching her home after forest fires claimed dozens of lives on June 19, 2017 in a village near Pedrogao Grande, in Portugal’s Leiria district. (Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

Although the claims came after the fires, climate change continues to affect their lives, the group said, particularly the fierce heatwaves that Portugal frequently experiences. They say these periods make it difficult for them to leave the house, concentrate on schoolwork, sleep and, for some, even breathe, in addition to taking a toll on their mental health.

“This makes us worried about our future. How can we not be afraid,” said plaintiff André dos Santos Oliviera, 15.

“As a legally binding agreement”

The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020 and relies heavily on crowdfunding, was expedited by the European Court of Human Rights due to the urgency of the matter and the large number of defendants.

This Wednesday, plaintiffs will argue that failing to address the accelerating climate crisis violates their human rights, including the rights to life and family, to be free from inhumane treatment, and to be free from discrimination based on age.

They asked the court to rule that countries fueling the climate crisis have an obligation to protect not only their own citizens but also those outside their countries.

Their demand is for 32 countries, including the 27 European Union countries plus Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK, to drastically reduce the pollution that causes global warming and also force companies based in their countries to reduce emissions throughout their supply chains. . .

Meanwhile, the defendant countries have confirmed in writing that none of the plaintiffs has shown that they have suffered serious harm due to climate change.

The government of Greece – a country that has recently experienced a deadly summer of heat, fires and storms – said in its response: “The impacts of climate change recorded so far do not appear to directly affect human life or health.”

Four of the six plaintiffs: Martim Duarte, 17; Cláudia Duarte, 21; Mariana Duarte, 8 years old and Catarina Mota, 20 years old. (Courtesy of Marcelo Engenheiro)

There are several things that could happen with this lawsuit.

The court may reject it for procedural reasons or decide that it does not have jurisdiction to enforce it.

If the court can overcome procedural obstacles, it could rule that states do not have human rights obligations regarding climate change. “This could be very detrimental to other similar cases,” said Michael B. Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

Or the court may rule in favor of the plaintiff. The decision will “act as a legally binding agreement,” Cuinn told CNN, forcing 32 countries to accelerate climate action.

“This could be a very important decision that inspires more climate change cases across Europe and perhaps in many other regions,” Gerrard told CNN.

The lawsuit is the largest of three lawsuits filed in court, all regarding the state’s obligations to its citizens regarding climate change.

The other two went to court in March. One was raised by more than 2,000 elderly women in Switzerland, who said heat waves triggered by climate change were harming their health and quality of life, and the other by a French mayor who said France’s lack of action on climate change violated their human rights. . .

It’s unclear whether the court will rule on all charges simultaneously, but the time between trial and sentencing is typically nine to 18 months, said Gerry Liston, senior attorney at GLAN.

The rise of climate litigation

As extreme weather conditions worsen, climate litigation is proving to be an increasingly popular tool for forcing climate action, especially as countries around the world have not done enough to reduce pollution and avoid catastrophic levels of climate change.

Even if current climate policies are met, the world is still on track to achieve warming of more than 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. The earth’s temperature has warmed by about 1.2 degrees and the impact is clear. This year alone has seen unprecedented heatwaves, forest fires and floods.

Countries are currently doing only the bare minimum, GLAN’s Liston said, and if all countries do the same, “we’re going to continue on this path of enormous disaster.”

That’s why people go to court. According to the Sabin Center, there are more than 2,400 climate change lawsuits worldwide, and growing every week.

Climate litigation is an important tool, said Catherine Higham, coordinator of the World Law on Climate Change project at the London School of Economics. “But I think that’s just one piece of the puzzle,” he told CNN.

Continued advocacy and climate conferences, such as the upcoming UN COP28 summit in Dubai, are also important, he added.

For the Portuguese plaintiffs, there will be an anxious wait for the court’s decision. Even if the claims don’t go as planned, Mota said, at least there will be people who will sit up and pay attention.

Still, he added, “we hope to get a positive outcome.”