Sweden’s Supreme Court has ruled that Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other activists cannot proceed with a case seeking to compel the government to take tougher action against climate change.
In 2022, activists filed a class action complaint in district court, saying that the state violates the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to do enough to prevent or mitigate the effects of climate change.
In 2023, the district court asked the Supreme Court to explain whether such a lawsuit could successfully be tried in a Swedish court, after the state’s request that the case be dismissed.
“A court cannot rule that parliament or the government must adopt any specific action. The political bodies determine independently on whether precise climate policies Sweden should implement,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.
However, the court stressed that it had not ruled out the possibility of a complaint formulated differently being considered in Sweden, citing the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling that parties satisfying specific qualifications may have the right to sue over climate change.
The group of 300 plaintiffs in the case, who call themselves the Aurora group, wanted the district court to order Sweden to do more to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The European Court of Human Rights declared last year that the Swiss government had infringed upon the rights of its people by not doing enough to address climate change.
Two other lawsuits, however, were dismissed, one of which was brought by six young Portuguese against thirty-two European nations that the plaintiffs said had failed to prevent catastrophic climate change.
According to the court, they must first seek a decision in Portugal.
