Letting Strasbourg rule on net zero is a risk to democracy

Any serious politician knows perfectly well by now that net zero 2050 won’t fly democratically. There was an inevitability about Rishi Sunak graciously allowing us longer to keep buying our petrol cars and using our gas boilers, not to mention Emmanuel Macron’s own subsequent climbdown on the gas boiler issue in France earlier this week. Their voters would not have stood for anything else.

But where does this now leave the serious climate activist? Effectively they have two choices: make the best of a democratic process which has turned against them, or move to take such decisions out of the hands of the voters.

There are ominous signs that they are increasingly inclined towards the latter, much more dangerous, course. One such straw in the wind is a high-profile case starting today in the European Court of Human Rights.

The nominal claimants are six Portuguese citizens aged between 11 and 24.