Czech Climate Appeal Association demands steps to reduce emissions from Constitutional Court

The Climate Appeal Association in Czechia has turned to the Constitutional Court to demand that the state take specific steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the association announced in a press release on Friday. In their view, the government is not fulfilling its own climate plans. The association has over three hundred members, and filed the lawsuit together with the municipality of Svatý Jan pod Skalou in the Beroun region and other parties.

According to the association, rising temperatures and more frequent extremes interfere with the right to life and the protection of people's health in Czechia. "The state has not yet adopted a climate law and has not set a carbon budget or specific annual targets for achieving climate neutrality” said Jakub Zamouřil, a member of the association's board. In 2022, the Municipal Court in Prague partially accepted the lawsuit, but after the intervention of the Supreme Administrative Court, it was dismissed. A precedent for the lawsuit was set last April, when the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in favour of a group of Swiss women who sued the Swiss government for insufficient efforts to combat global warming.