A group of children and young people, including Greta Thunberg, filed a class action lawsuit against the Swedish state for failing to take adequate action to stop climate change.
The lawsuit is part of an international wave of climate-related legal action, some of which is directed at national governments, and follows a high-profile case in the Netherlands, where the country’s Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the government had a legal obligation to take measures to mitigate global warming.
The Swedish lawsuit involves Thunberg, arguably the world’s best-known climate activist, and more than 600 other young plaintiffs who claim Sweden’s climate policies violate its constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The Swedish state fails to meet the constitutional requirement to promote sustainable development leading to a good environment for present and future generations,” the group said in a statement.
In 2017, Sweden adopted a climate law that requires the government to work to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases towards a goal of net zero set for 2045.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is key to meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 2°C by the end of the century.
However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February triggered a power struggle that set back efforts, and this year’s UN-sponsored climate talks in Egypt failed to make progress on ambitions.
In an interview with the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Thunberg said that she believes climate laws should be stricter.
“We don’t have laws that provide long-term protection from the consequences of climate and environmental crises, but we must use the methods at our disposal and do everything we can,” she said.
The lawsuit, which has been in the works for two years, comes at a time when the new Swedish government’s policies on climate change are facing intense scrutiny.
The cabinet, which took power after elections in September, announced plans to completely abolish the environment ministry. His 2023 budget has been criticized for including measures that will increase emissions from the transport sector.
“The Swedish state has never treated the climate crisis like the crisis it is, and the new government has made it clear that it will not do so either,” Anton Foley, 20, who is formally the lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement.
The suit, filed in Stockholm on Friday, urges the court to require the government to take its “fair share” of global measures to keep greenhouse gas emissions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.