Sweden’s top court rejects Greta Thunberg lawsuit on climate action

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Sweden’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other activists cannot proceed with a lawsuit that had sought to force the state to take stronger action against climate change.

Activists filed a class action lawsuit in 2022 with a district court, arguing that the state violates rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights by not doing enough to limit climate change, or mitigate its effects.

The district court asked the Supreme Court in 2023 to clarify whether such a lawsuit could effectively be tried in a Swedish court, following a request by the state for the case to be dismissed.

“A court cannot decide that the parliament or the government must take any specific action. The political bodies decide independently on which specific climate measures Sweden should take,” the Supreme Court said in a statement on Wednesday.

But the court added that it had not ruled out that a lawsuit formulated differently could be heard in Sweden, as the European Court of Justice has said groups meeting certain requirements may have the right to sue over climate change.

“The Supreme Court states in its decision that such a case could only concern the question of whether individuals’ rights under the convention have been violated, not what specific measures the state is obliged to take,” it said.

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 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

Last year, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the Swiss government had violated the rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change.

But it rejected two other cases, including one filed by six young Portuguese people against 32 European countries that the plaintiffs said had failed to avert catastrophic climate change. The court said they first needed to seek a ruling in Portugal.