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Reuters
Reuters
Entertainment
By Emma Farge

'Climate lockdown' anger drives Swiss grandmother to sue Bern at European court

Marie-Eve Volkoff, 85, gestures during an interview in her apartment in Geneva, Switzerland, March 13, 2023. REUTERS/Emma Farge

Last summer while dozens of Swiss pensioners were campaigning in the Alps to save their fast-melting glaciers, 85-year-old Marie-Eve Volkoff was instead stuck inside her small Geneva apartment watching pre-recorded TV programmes.

Her frustration with what she calls "climate lockdown" is part of her motivation for suing the Swiss government alongside more than 2,000 other elderly women in the first ever climate case before the European Court of Human Rights this week. The submission, set to be followed by two more this year, could result in an emissions cut order that goes beyond even the 2015 Paris Agreement commitments, setting an important precedent.

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