Sweden’s Supreme Court ruled that Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other activists could not proceed with a lawsuit that sought to force the state to take stronger action on climate change.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2022, where the activists requested that the District Court declare that the state violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. They argued that the state was not taking enough measures to counteract climate change and not achieving specified climate change goals.
One of the Supreme Court Justices in the case, Jonas Malmberg, said the court ruled the group’s actions inadmissible and would not go further in the case.
“The court has not taken a position on how the issue should be assessed if the action was brought by an association and if the action was limited to requesting a declaration that the state violated their rights under the European Convention of Human Rights by not taking sufficient measures to counteract the effects of climate change," Malmberg said.
There were around 300 plaintiffs in the case who called themselves the Aurora group who wanted the courts to order Sweden to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Aurora’s legal and scientific coordinator, Ida Edling, told Reuters that they would review their legal options.
"We will continue to desperately try to prevent planetary collapses and get Sweden to do their legal duty to respect human rights and stop making the planetary crisis worse," Edling said.
