More than 600 young people in
Sweden, including climate activist Greta
Thunberg, on Friday filed a lawsuit against the Swedish state accusing it of
climate inaction, a first in the country.
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"There has never been such a large-scale case in the Swedish legal
system", Ida Edling, a member of the organisation behind the lawsuit,
Aurora, told AFP.
The lawsuit, symbolically submitted to the Stockholm district court during a
protest in the city on Friday, had previously been filed electronically to
another Stockholm court, Aurora said.
The legal action, which has been in the works for two years, comes as
Sweden's new right-wing government faces mounting criticism over lacklustre
climate goals.
Moa Widmark, a 19-year-old student, said she was taking part in Friday's
demonstration because "the climate crisis is worrying and scary -- we're
headed for a catastrophe".
While the lawsuit is a first in the Swedish courts, six Portuguese youths
have taken Sweden and 32 other countries to the European Court of Human Rights
accusing them of failing to adequately address the climate crisis.
"If we win, there will be a verdict that says the Swedish state is
required to do its share of the global measures needed for the world to meet
the 1.5 degree target", Edling said.
In recent years, a growing number of organisations and citizens have turned
to the courts to criticise what they claim 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.
In a report published earlier this week, the Swedish Meteorological and
Hydrological Institute said the average temperature in Sweden had risen nearly
two degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s,
twice as fast as the global average.
Snow cover now lasts two weeks less, while precipitation has increased.
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