Irish environmental experts welcome 'huge boost' from Swiss climate change case ruling

People demonstrate outside the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday where a ruling in a landmark climate change case was handed down. The case sets a precedent that climate change represents a fundamental issue of human rights, as opposed to merely an environmental problem. Photo: AP/Jean-Francois Badias

Irish environmental experts say a new "landmark” ruling by the European Court of Human Rights is a “huge boost” for climate activists, one which “couldn’t have come at a more important time”.

The ECHR has ruled in favour of a case taken by a group of older Swiss women in asserting that their government had an obligation to act on its own climate change commitments in order to uphold the women’s fundamental human rights.