Nigel Farage has warned that a ruling from the ECHR that governments have a duty to protect citizens from the impacts of climate change could stop the UK government from fulfilling manifesto commitments.

Speaking on GB News, Nigel Farage said:

“There was a very significant ruling today in Strasbourg at the European Court of Human Rights.

“An action was taken by a group of elderly, well-meaning Swiss women against their own government. And the premise was their government had not been cutting carbon emissions sufficiently, by not meeting Net Zero obligations.

“Now, you might say, what the hell is this got to do with the European Court of Human Rights? Something that was set up post war to stop abomination such as the discrimination against the Jews that ended up with the Holocaust?

“But as I’ve said, many, many times in the past, the ECHR is all about judicial activism. It’s all about expanding its reach. Well boy, it did this morning.

“Because the European Court of Human Rights has decided that under Article 8 of the Convention, which is the right to life, that actually, governments have a duty to protect people from climate change.

“And most significantly, this ruling is binding and will trickle down to influence the law in all 46 countries that are signed up to ECHR including the United Kingdom.

“The right to respect for private and family life has been used to say that governments have a duty to fight climate change; to meet their zero obligations.

“Now, to me, this just says what I’ve been saying for years anyway, that we should have no part of this thing whatsoever. I think the implications for, not just national sovereignty, but for general elections are very, very serious indeed.

“If this court has judged that governments have a duty to protect people from climate change – whatever that means, we’re talking here about the theory that man made CO2 is leading to global warming.

“What if I stand for the General Election and I say, ‘this is a load of cobblers. This is a complete load of nonsense: CO2’s got nothing to do with global warming, it’s all about sun activity,’ and I win a majority in the House of Commons and form a government.

“What this judgement means is that I won’t be allowed to carry out the will of the people if I stay a signatory to the ECHR.”