Friends of the Earth and Others v. the United Kingdom

In July 2025, after having exhausted the available domestic remedies, Friends of the Earth Limited ("FOE'), and two individual applicants, Mr Kevin Jordan and Mr Doug Paulley, filed a complaint against the UK’s adaptation policies with the ECtHR. For more on the domestic proceedings, see the UK case entry. This case is fundamentally about whether the UK government’s adaptation policies are in breach of its human rights obligations. Mr Jordan lost his home to coastal erosion. Mr Paulley lives in a care home, whose common areas are subject to high temperatures, and has multiple conditions and disabilities which make him particularly vulnerable to heat. Building on the ECtHR’s Verein KlimaSeniorinnen and Others v. Switzerland ruling, the three applicants allege that by failing to address the effects of climate change, including heatwaves and coastal erosion and/or even to adopt a proper process for doing so, the UK breached their right to life (article 2 ECHR), their right to respect for private and family life (article 8 ECHR) and their right to protection of property in conjunction with the prohibition of discrimination (article 1 of Protocol 1 read with article 14 ECHR).