I’ve met many 11-year-olds in my time. They tend to be preoccupied with school, friends and football. Not one was spending their free time preparing to sue their government over climate change. They worried about when they would be allowed their first mobile phone, not how to file a case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). But maybe those days are over.

This week, an 11-year-old girl from Portugal will be missing school to appear before ECHR judges in Strasbourg. Mariana Duarte Agostinho and five other Portuguese young people have filed legal claims against 32 countries, including Britain, France and Germany. They argue that their rights to life, privacy, a family life and to be free from discrimination have been violated by the climate change that national governments have failed to prevent. Their childhoods, they claim, have been ruined.

Poor kids. Although, as four of the six are aged over 18, ‘kids’ hardly seems appropriate.

All of them claim to suffer from anxiety. Mariana has said of this week’s hearing: ‘I’m scared but I’m also very happy that we are hopefully close to accomplishing our goal.’ Three of the group have respiratory problems and they all, apparently, struggle to sleep and concentrate at school when it gets very hot.