The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Wednesday begins hearing a case brought by six Portuguese youths against 32 nations for not doing enough to stop global warming, the latest bid to secure climate justice through the courts. The group, aged 11 to 24, say they are suffering from anxiety over their health and “having to live with a climate that is getting hotter and hotter” with more natural disasters. The move to file a complaint with the Strasbourg-based court was sparked by the massive wildfires that struck Portugal in 2017, killing more than 100 people and charring swathes of the country. Some plaintiffs claim allergies and breathing problems both during the fires and after, conditions at risk of persisting if the planet keeps warming. “European governments are not managing to protect us,” said Andre Oliveira, 15, one of the six involved. “We’re on the front lines of climate change in Europe: even in February it’s sometimes 30 degrees (Celsius, 86 Fahrenheit). The heatwaves are getting more and more serious,” he added. Andre and his fellow plaintiffs say the 27 European Union member states along with Russia, Turkey, Switzerland, Norway and Britain have all failed to sufficiently limit greenhouse gas emissions, affecting their life and health. In concrete legal terms, they complain of infringements of their rights to life and respect for private life — articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. “There have been cases taken by young people about climate change in other courts before, but this is the first to be heard by the ECHR related to the rights of young people,” said Gerry Liston, a lawyer with the British-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which is representing them. If they win, nations would have to “rapidly accelerate their climate mitigation efforts”, Liston added. “In legal terms, it would be a game changer.” Activists are increasingly turning to courts to force greater efforts by governments to tackle climate change amid warnings the world is falling short of the 2015 Paris Agreement goals for limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above mid-19th century levels. In August, a court in the US state of Montana ruled in favour of a group of youths who accused it of violating their rights to a clean environment. “The big advancement in the past couple of years was clarifying that this connection between human rights and climate change is very obvious, very clear,” said Maria-Antonia Tigre, co-author of a report on the phenomenon published by the University of Columbia’s Sabin Center.