Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other activists’ case to push the government to take more aggressive action against climate change was dismissed by Sweden’s Supreme Court on Wednesday. In 2022, activists filed a class action complaint in a district court, claiming that the state’s failure to take adequate action to curb climate change or lessen its effects breaches rights outlined in the European Convention on Human Rights.
In 2023, after the state requested that the case be dismissed, the district court asked the Supreme Court to clarify if such a lawsuit may be prosecuted in a Swedish court.
A court cannot order the government or parliament to do anything in particular. The Supreme Court said in a statement on Wednesday that the political authorities make their own decisions about the exact climate actions Sweden should take.
The European Court of Justice has stated that organisations that meet specific qualifications may have the right to sue over climate change, therefore the court added that it had not ruled out the possibility that a case with a different formulation may be considered in Sweden.
According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, a case of this nature may only address whether or whether people’s rights under the convention had been infringed, not what particular actions the state must take, the court stated.
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