Children affected by climate change are crowdfunding to sue European governments

Wednesday 27 September 2017

The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) is preparing to bring a hugely ambitious and potentially ground breaking case directly to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) targeting the major emitters among the 47 states party to the ECHR.

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A team of barristers from Garden Court Chambers made up of Paul Clark, Richard Reynolds and Marc Willers QC will be working closely with climate scientists on the case.

The case will be taken on behalf of a group of children from parts of Europe most vulnerable to climate change. The team will be arguing that the signatories of the ECHR must significantly strengthen their emissions-cutting policies and commit to keeping the majority of their fossil fuel reserves in the ground. The major emitters among these States are collectively responsible for nearly one-fifth of global emissions and also hold a similar proportion of the world’s known fossil fuel reserves.

GLAN has teamed up with CrowdJustice, a crowdfunding platform which has raised over £3 million for public interest cases since 2015. On 25th September they launched a 30-day campaign to begin raising the funding needed to bring this case. The initial target is £20,000.

To donate to the campaign visit GLAN’s CrowdJustice page.

The campaign has already been widely reported, including by the Guardian, the Independent and the Irish Times

Marc Willers QC, Richard Reynolds and Paul Clark, are all barristers in Garden Court Chambers. Marc is a member of the Environmental and Planning Law Team, Richard and Paul are members of the International Advice and Litigation Team.

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