A Swedish court agreed on Tuesday to hear a class action lawsuit brought against the state by 300 young people including activist Greta Thunberg, accusing it of climate inaction.
The lawsuit, the first of its kind in the Scandinavian country, was originally filed in November 2022 by the organisation Aurora.
It argued the state “needs to do its fair share of the global work to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels”.
In its lawsuit, the group demanded the state take action to limit climate-heating greenhouse gas emissions and examine just how far it could reduce them within the limits of what is “technically and economically feasible in Sweden”.
The Nacka district court said it had given the state three months to respond to the lawsuit and that, depending on the parties’ pleas and positions, the case could either be taken to trial or handled through written procedure.
“At present, the district court cannot give a forecast as to when the case may be finalised or when it may be necessary to hold hearings in the case,” it said.
Climate activist Thunberg, who was one of the original signatories of the lawsuit, on Monday denounced an “unprecedented betrayal” from those in power after the United Nations’ climate panel warned the world was set to cross the key 1.5-degree global warming limit in about a decade.
She accuses them of living in “denial”.
In recent years, a growing number of organisations and citizens have turned to the courts to criticise what they say is government inaction on the climate.
In December 2019, the Dutch supreme court ordered the government to slash greenhouse gases by at least 25 percent by 2020, in a landmark case brought by an environmental group.
In a similar case in France, more than two million citizens took the French state to court for failing to act against climate change.
