\n<\/p>\n
ROME: An Italian court is to rule on the country\u2019s first climate lawsuit against the state, with claimants hoping Rome will be ordered to slash greenhouse-gas emissions sharply.<\/strong><\/p>\n The case, known as \u201cGiudizio Universale\u201d (Last Judgment), was launched in June 2021 by environmental group A Sud and more than 200 other associations and individuals.<\/p>\n They accuse the state of violating fundamental rights by failing to take sufficient action to meet the goals laid out in the landmark 2015 Paris agreement to reduce carbon emissions.<\/p>\n \u201cI joined the trial because I have a mission to inform society about the risks we face due to climate change,\u201d climatologist Luca Mercalli, one of the claimants, told AFP.<\/p>\n A win would put pressure on \u201cinstitutions to be much faster and more concrete in addressing the climate crisis\u201d, said Mercalli, who moved to the mountains in northern Italy to escape increasingly frequent heatwaves on the plains.<\/p>\n Scientists have long warned that humanity\u2019s burning of fossil fuels is warming the world with disastrous consequences for the environment.<\/p>\n In what promised to be a historic case for Italy \u2014 a Mediterranean country exposed to multiple climate calamities \u2014 the claimants initially asked a court to find the state responsible for contributing to the crisis, and to order it to cut emissions by 92 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2030.<\/p>\n But a Rome court agreed in 2024 with the state\u2019s argument that civil courts do not have jurisdiction over decisions made by governments on climate.<\/p>\n It was \u201ca unique ruling in Europe\u201d, Luca Saltalamacchia, lawyer for A Sud, told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cCourts either rule in favour of the plaintiffs and order the state to act, or they dismiss the case on its merits.<\/p>\n \u201cNever before in a European country has a judge simply said, \u2018No, I cannot rule\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Fresh evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n The claimants have appealed, pointing to litigation \u2014 particularly a 2024 European Court of Human Rights ruling in a Swiss case \u2014 supporting their arguments linking climate protection with human rights.<\/p>\n They submitted fresh scientific evidence, from data on vast numbers of excess deaths due to heat in Italy, to forecasts on desertification and floods.<\/p>\n The Rome appeals court is due to rule later this month.<\/p>\n Saltalamacchia said the claimants hope the court will not only agree to examine the merits of the case, but \u201corder the state to improve its climate policies\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are norms \u2014 such as the Paris agreement \u2014 that require the state to take specific steps which, in our view, have not been taken,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Under the Paris accord, countries agreed to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, but scientists now say that threshold could be breached by about 2030.<\/p>\n A 2022 reform of Italy\u2019s constitution also added that the state must \u201cprotect the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems, also in the interest of future generations\u201d.<\/p>\n But Europe is warming at roughly twice the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and Italy is increasingly victim to extreme weather events.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n