The World Briefly

March 22, 2023

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Sweden

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A Swedish court ruled Tuesday that hundreds of climate activists, including well-known advocate Greta Thunberg, can sue Sweden’s government for having an “insufficient climate policy,” Al Jazeera reported.

In November, Thunberg and 600 other young activists in a group called Aurora brought a class action lawsuit against the government of Sweden, saying it had to do more to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) in order to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Aurora is requesting the court to rule that Sweden must reduce emissions by at least 6.5 to 9.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, applicable retroactively to 2019.

The Nacka District Court approved the lawsuit after the group tweaked its claim. It added that the Swedish government has three months to respond to the lawsuit before the case can be heard or settled.

The litigation marks the latest example of climate activists suing governments and companies in recent years, according to the Associated Press.

In one of the most well-known cases, Germany’s highest court decided in 2021 that the government needed to adjust its climate goals in order to avoid unjustly burdening the young.

The German government responded by moving the deadline for achieving “net zero” emissions forward by five years to 2045, and increased the number of ambitious short- and medium-term actions it would take to get there.

On Monday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the “climate time bomb is ticking,” and urged wealthy nations to reduce emissions more quickly after a new UN scientific assessment indicated that there was not much time left to address climate change.

This story originally appeared in the March 22, 2023 newsletter, Rubber Duck Politics.