More than 600 young people in Sweden, including activist Greta Thunberg, filed a lawsuit against the Swedish state on charges of climate inaction, the first such action in the country on Friday.
“There has never been a case this big in the Swedish legal system,” Ida Edling, a member of the organization behind the Aurora case, told AFP.
The case, which was symbolically presented to the Stockholm district court during a protest in the city on Friday, had previously been filed electronically in another Stockholm court, Aurora said. Two years of legal action comes as Sweden’s new right-wing government faces growing criticism over the country’s opaque climate goals.
Moa Widmark, a 19-year-old student, said she attended Friday’s demonstration because the “climate crisis was alarming and frightening”. “We’re headed for a disaster,” she justified.
Although the process is a first in Swedish courts, in 2020, six Portuguese youths had already taken Sweden and 32 other countries to the European Court of Human Rights, accusing them of not dealing with the climate crisis adequately.
“If we win, there will be a decision that the Swedish state has to play its part in the global measures necessary to achieve the world’s target of 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature rise compared to pre-industrial levels.” said Edling.
Pressure on the courts
Inspired by Greta Thunberg, young people around the world are raising flags against global warming. In recent years, a growing number of organizations and citizens have taken to the courts to criticize what they say is the government’s inaction on climate.
In December 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court, in a landmark case brought by an environmental group, ordered the government to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 25% by the end of 2020 to reach 1990 levels. In a similar case in France, more than 2 million citizens sued the French state for failing to act on climate change.
The Swedish Meteorology and Hydrology Institute said in a report published earlier this week that the average temperature in Sweden has risen by about 2°C since the end of the 19th century, twice the global average.
The snow cover has now shortened by two weeks, while the precipitation level has increased.
(with AFP)
source: Noticias
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.