Sweden’s Supreme Court throws out Greta Thunberg climate lawsuit

Sweden’s Supreme Court threw out a class action lawsuit Wednesday brought against the state by 300 young people, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, accusing it of climate inaction.

The first of its kind in the Scandinavian country, the case demanded that Sweden take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to within the limits of what is “technically and economically feasible”.

“The Supreme Court has now concluded that the case cannot be taken up for review,” it said in a statement. “This is because a court cannot decide that the Riksdag (parliament) or the government has to take any particular action.”

“The political bodies decide independently which specific climate measures Sweden should take,” it added.

However, the Supreme Court said it did not rule out that a climate case could be tried by the courts if it were “designed differently” — highlighting that it was filed by a group of individuals rather than an association.

“The European Court of Justice has recently ruled in a judgment that an association that meets certain requirements may have the right to bring a climate lawsuit.”

While a group named Aurora is behind the Swedish lawsuit, it was filed in the name of one individual, with some 300 other people joining it, according to the Supreme Court.

The court noted there are “very high requirements for individuals to have the right to bring such a claim” against a state.

“It is a fundamental principle to not allow a lawsuit by individuals with the aim of protecting public interests, and climate change affects everyone.”

“Individuals only have the right to judicial review if the state’s failure has had sufficiently imminent and certain effects on their individual rights.”

However, if the lawsuit were instead filed by an association, “which meets certain requirements regarding, among other things, representativeness and suitability, these high requirements are not applied.”

The Supreme Court said it had not addressed how the issue would be assessed if the lawsuit had been brought by an association and if it were limited to the question of whether the state violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, Jonas Malmberg, one of the judges in the case, said in a statement.

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 per cent by 2020 in a landmark case brought by an environmental group.