If climate justice had a formula, it could be this: one tenacious lawyer plus 2,500 determined senior women equals a ruling that redefined climate accountability.
When Zurich-based attorney Cordelia Bähr realized elderly women were dying at higher rates from extreme heat, she didn’t wait for politicians to act—she took them to court. As lead counsel for KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, she led an eight-year fight to hold the Swiss government accountable for failing to protect its most vulnerable citizens from climate change. And she won.
In a historic ruling last year, the European Court of Human Rights declared that inadequate climate action by a government violates fundamental human rights to protection from the “serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life.” This sets a new legal precedent for individuals to hold their governments accountable.
With science, law, and relentless determination, Bähr didn’t just fight for justice—she redefined it.
Hayhoe is a climate scientist, a professor at Texas Tech University, and chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy