I am suing 33 countries, because our home is burning.
I have sued the German government for doing too little for climate protection
and putting the livelihoods of my generation and future generations at risk.
I went to court to get ultimately justice for my daughter and ultimately on December the 16th,
2020 she became the first person in the world to have air pollution
on her death certificate. And as a family we believe justice happened.
I come from the North Sea Island of Langeoog. We live right on the coast and,
of course, we've been hugely impacted by climate change.
The fact is: we're surrounded by water. That's the way it is on an island. Sea levels are rising. And
we've reached a point where you start asking yourself: What's it going to look like in 30
years, or 50? In concrete terms, in the next few years, we're expecting to see an increasing number
of storm surges. They're already starting earlier and getting stronger and stronger.
A special feature on Langeoog is that we don't get our water supply from the mainland.
Instead, we have what's called a "freshwater lens." It's located right behind the first
chain of protective dunes. The problem is that we have to reinforce the sand barrier
almost every year as the storm tides become more violent and start earlier and earlier.
The dune chains are being eroded, which means that salt water could get into the interior of
the island. The worst-case scenario is that this salt water could get into the freshwater lens,
making it unusable for decades or more. We would effectively no longer have a water supply.
I charge the Federal Republic of Germany with doing too little for climate protection in
recent years and putting the livelihoods of my generation, and future generations, at risk.
My late daughter is Ella Roberta and she had one of the worst cases of asthma
ever recorded in this country. And through my research, I found out that air pollution,
as much as I might feel that it's affected my daughter, it affects millions. It turned out to me
that night she died, the air pollution was one of the highest ever in the area.
My daughter becoming that chronically ill, changed my life. Even when she was here, we didn't live in
quotes a normal life. No! My life was rushing to work and then always having my phone near
me in case her school rang to say her lungs had collapsed. Her illness was literally 28 months.
So, it started in October, you know, signs of a cold, a cough that sounded
like whooping cough and her first admission, or her first
coma or seizure, was in December. And then before we blinked again, she was gone.
Look, breathing … that you and I right now … we take it for granted because we're both sitting
here, we can both breathe. There's no problem. And it's something we, as humans, take for granted.
Speak to anybody who has an issue with breathing. It's a whole new ballgame. And for her
who had been extremely healthy. I don´t think we really had the time to get used to her being ill.
I went to court because I wanted air pollution on Ella's death certificate, because as a mother
ultimately you want to know the reason why your child has passed away.
In 2017 it was very hot. There were a lot of fires that year and especially,
where I live. I did not feel I was going to die or
I was in imminent danger, but my house was all grey, because of the ashes, the roof was grey.
My garden used to be green. It was grey. So it's very sad to go past those places that I used to
love and to see that everything is burned this world that was given to us, it I so beautiful and
we are destroying it. We have to do something and we have to show these governments that
they are not doing enough. And we need to express our need to do better and ask them to do better.
Because if they are the government, they are here to serve us and serve the population.
And I wondered, so if now there are these fires? What's going to happen in 20 years,
when I probably want to have a family, when I want to make my life. Will I have the future
that my parents had? Maybe I'm not going to have that future. So that scared me a lot.
If there's something I can do to prevent that, I'm going to do it. Even if it means that I have
to put 33 countries in the court. Politics must move with the times.
And that's what these lawsuits are all about: about forcing politics to get moving.
We've known since 1987 at the very latest that we're going
to be facing a serious problem with our climate.
And we haven't come very far. If we're still having to ask ourselves about our
personal obligations in terms of protecting our climate, about reducing emissions drastically.
That's when it becomes clear that our political leaders haven't achieved very much at all.
Politicians are intelligent people. But maybe they allow themselves to be influenced by
interest groups. Which may explain why serious measures against climate change
have so often been put off for another ten years, or until some new government came into power.
But now, it's time to act. If we don't, it might soon be too late.
Langeoog is my home. It's where I live and where I work.
It's my life. It's the life of my parents. So, it's impossible for me to imagine that in 30 or
40 years, Langeoog may no longer exist. That it might have been swallowed up by the waves.
And that was when the people from Germanwatch got in touch with me and
said that they were preparing a case for the Federal Constitutional Court
and asked me if I wanted to get involved. And, of course, I was totally up for it.
We took the whole issue of climate change and especially the threats to all generations,
but especially the young generation
to the German Constitutional Court. And we won there. And essentially, the court
rendered a historic judgment really by saying that yes, climate protection is a human right
and the government, essentially all governments that are bound by human rights have a duty
to not postpone climate action. That decision forced the German government in
revamping and revisiting its climate law and it essentially took three days
for the new figures to appear out of thin air. We were all completely over the moon. The
ruling was groundbreaking, historic. Our efforts hadn't been in vain. We'd really
achieved something and we are a little bit proud of our team, and of ourselves.
I was surprised by this, because normally the courts leave these questions to the politicians
and hold back on their own judgment. But the situation is apparently so dramatic in the
eyes of the court, climate change so directly visible, that the court said: In this case,
fundamental rights must now be taken seriously and politics must be given a command, so to speak.
I think the main problem is that the third power, the judiciary,
is setting standards for something that should actually be decided by politicians.
Ultimately, climate protection is a legislative and executive task,
which can only be overburdened with detailed judicial decisions.
Global Legal Action Network are a group of lawyers, so we got in touch with them and they
ever since have been very supportive. They gave us everything we need in that they are
the only reason why we are here now, because six kids would never be able to put the lawsuit to
the Court of Human Rights alone. After we put the case in the court, they responded
very quickly and they said yes to the case. And we were never expecting that because it was so fast.
It was very special and we already knew that, OK, this is big and we are doing the right thing.
The evidence is absolutely compelling. The type of impacts that people in Portugal stand to endure
in the future. I am also equally confident that the court will
recognize the urgency in this case which will ultimately, we hope to
give the final legal decision that the applicants in this case are seeking.
The governments later ask them for more time to do the arguments and they
denied it. They give them a little bit time, but not as much as they asked. So, this shows
that they are being supportive of us and they are really considering our case. And this is amazing.
The plaintiffs in this case, six Portuguese young people, have appealed directly to the
European Court of Human Rights and said that it is unreasonable that we first have to sue in
all the states, and they have sued 33 states. To sue in all the states. It takes
too long and we don't have that much time in climate protection.
I think that is a very interesting case. It's very important. And if the court
actually comes to a good order, it could change everything. It could change everything in Europe,
and that's very high hopes. I have only glimpsed at the responses by government.
They're very disappointing. I think. They completely ignore the scientific facts.
Every child in the UK who dies suddenly has an inquest. And I remember during the Child
Death Review, which you have in a borough, they sort of do the review into your child's death.
This was discussed there. That it is to do with something in the air. Look you can get
all the evidence together, but you need somebody credible to go to court and speak on your behalf.
They were basically governmental authorities up against
the family, and they all had a very different or slightly different role in
controlling air pollution. So, it was immensely complicated, factually and scientifically. But
the focus kept on coming back to what happened to this individual. So, it was always possible
to follow the thread of what happened to Ella. So there were moments in court when I felt like,
that is my daughter you are talking about. But I purposely took her picture into court.
So her picture was there where all the expert witnesses were. And I wanted them to remember
that this was a real human being that they were talking about, you know,
she was their big sister. She was the daughter. She was the granddaughter. She has cousins. Ella
was very much loved and she was cared about. I think, on a case like this, communication
is absolutely key. Because public on such a massive issue as climate change or air pollution.
You need to have public concern. And I think that is one of the things that this inquest has done
because, you know, parents can put themselves in Rosamund's shoes. And that really generates
a sort of concern that will exert the influence necessary to get the government to move on this.
I believe there will be an increase in national lawsuits, and that trend has already begun.
There are lawsuits in Ireland, in Great Britain, in Norway, in Italy, in France.
So, everywhere, there are now national lawsuits against the EU member states.
But also against states outside the European Union – basically worldwide.
Climate lawsuits do exist worldwide, but worldwide is always a shortened formula here.
There are no climate lawsuits in China yet, and as far as I know, there are none in Russia
and similar regimes. So the climate lawsuits are now still a phenomenon of rule-of-law communities.
Climate protection is a global problem, and climate protection requires very, very big
solutions. We are dealing here with a problem that demands the restructuring of industrial society.
And this major transformation, is not something that can be driven by individual court rulings.
Being in the environmental law field always entails that you lose
often. But I believe right now, there is wind is blowing from behind me. The interest of
stakeholders in the industry has shifted very much in not only in Germany, but also elsewhere. The
investment community has a different set of eyes on carbon investments. That's a very important,
that is a very important change in the past two years. And that gives me hope as well,
because there's so much money around, if we put it where it needs to be, then.
When I look at the history of our country, I see that we've always been a country of innovation.
And, if we're lucky, it might, to put it bluntly, save our skins this time, too.
I do think people need to be accountable. And one area where they can be accountable
is to do something about cleaning up the air. I thought for all she suffered, she deserved
that. And my battle right now is trying to get the government to implement them in law.
We are worried and we are trying to do everything we can, but we don´t feel like we are the voice
of this planet, and it is really an emergency and not just something we have to do later.