Ten families from Europe, Kenya, and Fiji have filed suit against the European Union, seeking to limit global warming's threats to their homes and livelihoods, their lawyers said Thursday.

They insist the bloc must do more to limit climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and point to drought, glacier melt, sea level rise and flooding that will only worsen as temperatures rise.

The plaintiffs before the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice are "families living near the coast, families owning forests in Portugal, families in the mountains that see the glaciers melting, families in the north that are affected by permafrost melting," their lawer Roda Verheyen told AFP.

They "are already being impacted by climate change, already incurring damage... and they are saying: 'EU, you have to do what you can to protect us because otherwise our damage will be catastrophical'," Verheyen said.

The claim, nicknamed the "People's Climate Case", is the first of its kind brought against the EU, the group's lawyers said.

Previously, suits were filed against individual governments.

In Paris in 2015, the world's nations agreed to limit average global warming to under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

This would be achieved by limiting emissions of planet-warming gases emitted by burning fossil fuels coal, oil and gas.

Under the pact, nations submitted voluntary emissions-cutting pledges. But these are forecast to still leave the planet on track for warming of 3.0 C -- a level scientists warn will entail more frequent super-storms, longer droughts and an island-swallowing rise in the sea level.

The average global temperature has already climbed about 1.0 C, researchers said.

The EU has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

This goal is inadequate to protect the plaintiffs "fundamental rights such as the right to life, health, property, and occupation," said the Climate Action Network (CAN) lobby group backing the court bid.

- World leader? -

Petru Vlad, a 50-year-old father of three who farms 100 sheep and a dozen cows in the mountains of central Romania, complains about dwindling water supplies due to changing rainfall patterns.

"There is no more water," he told AFP.

And the vegetation his herd feeds on has also changed. "Now there is only grass with tough roots better able to survive the drought," he said.

"Through this case, I am not seeking to be compensated, but mainly to alert the authorities in the EU of the situation," added Armando Carvalho, a Portuguese forester who saw all his trees destroyed by wildfires in 2017.

Wildfires are predicted to become more commonplace as forest cover dries out in an ever warmer world.

"The EU carries responsibility for these issues as a world leader," insisted Carvalho.

The 30-odd plaintiffs want the Luxembourg-based court to compel the European Parliament and EU's executive council of ministers to significantly upgrade a number of emissions-curbing directives.

They also want the court to rule that climate change is a human rights issue, and that the EU "is responsible to protect their rights, also the rights of today's children and future generations," said the CAN.

The plaintiffs include a family from the Italian Alps which has seen ice-based tourism dwindle due to warmer winters, one from a German island disappearing under rising ocean waters, and a group of Sweden's indigenous Sami herders whose reindeer increasingly struggle to find food.

Also in their midst is a family from Kenya affected by heatwaves and desertification, and Fijians plagued by seasonal cyclones and declining fisheries due to coral bleaching.

"Climate change is felt everywhere in the world, there's a global responsiblity," CAN representative Wendel Trio said of the decision to include non-European plaintiffs.

It could be several months before the court announces whether it will hear the case, officially submitted on Wednesday.

German NGO Protect the Planet is carrying the costs of the application.

Climate change: The families taking the EU to task
Paris (AFP) May 24, 2018 - Ten families and a group of reindeer-herding youngsters have filed suit against the European Union, seeking stronger measures against the global warming they say is already harming their livelihoods.

From eight countries, in Europe and beyond, the group have an eclectic mix of stories.

- Losing lavender -

In the countryside of southeast France, the Feschet family have been farming lavender for three generations.

But regional warming of about half-a-degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade since 1950, is taking its toll on the fragrant plants.

"These last 15 years there have been climate complications unlike any we have seen before -- micro tornados, torrential rains of 120 millimetres (4.7 inches) in two hours, and last year a five-month drought that really damaged our plantation," 72-year-old Maurice Feschet told AFP.

His son Renaud, who now runs the business, saw his income shrink by about 44 percent from 2009 to 2016.

"There was a drought one year, followed by flooding the next, then spring frost," said the retired Feschet.

"Things have become untenable... My son wonders whether he will be able to continue this as a career and as for the grandson taking over, we don't even talk about that."

- Goat herders' anguish -

The Guyo family herds goats in northern Kenya, near the Ethiopian border. More frequent and extreme heatwaves, they say, have affected their five children's health and education.

Increasingly, the mercury soars above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) -- too hot for the four oldest to walk the 1.5 kilometres (0.93 miles) to school.

"We face more and more extreme heat in our region. This threatens our lives on several levels," said Roba Guyo, the father of the family.

"Water is missing for herding and drinking -- most importantly my children's health is in danger."

The youngsters experience skin rashes and headaches, he said, and are often tired as it is too hot to sleep.

- Hungry reindeer -

In the Arctic, climate change threatens the traditional life of the Sami people who have been raising reindeer in parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia for generations.

Almost all winters since 1989 have been warmer than average, according to representatives of the "People's Climate Case" filed before the European Court of Justice with the support of climate lobby groups and researchers.

Reindeer feed on lichen and moss that grow under the snow. But milder winters cause the snow to melt and refreeze, covering the animals' feeding ground with a hard, frozen layer.

"If we lose the reindeer, the Sami culture will be lost," said 22-year-old Sanna Vannar, who leads a Swedish group called Saminuorra, or Young Samis.

"Many of the Sami youth want to be reindeer herders, but they cannot see a future."

- Too hot for honey -

Ildebrando Conceicao's family has kept bees in central Portugal for decades, making a living from honey, pollen, propolis, and wax.

With warmer winters, pests that would normally be dormant now attack the hives at their most vulnerable. And in summer, temperatures can soar above 40 C, melting the honeycombs.

"Today, we don't have four seasons anymore, only winter and summer," lamented Conceicao.

"This situation is disturbing the work of the bees... The decrease in honey production... has reduced my family's economic income."

Production in 2017 declined by almost 60 percent, and the family business is on the verge of becoming unprofitable.

- Dwindling ice -

In the Gran Paradiso National Park in the Italian Alps, the Elter family runs a small hotel that relies heavily on visiting ice climbers from around the world.

Glaciers are not only an important reserve of freshwater, but also "our only income during the winter season," said Giorgio Elter. But higher temperatures make ice-climbing dangerous and drives fans of the sport elsewhere.

"For us, this legal action is very important to raise awareness among our decision makers and supra-national institutions on the need to take more radical actions and measures to stop these impacts before they become irreversible and it is too late for all of us," he said.

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