Calay News
Spain’s Supreme Court has begun analyzing a lawsuit filed by Greenpeace and other environmental NGOs against the government, accusing it of not doing enough to address climate change, both the court and the organizations said.
A Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed that deliberations began Tuesday on the lawsuit filed in September 2020 by Greenpeace, Ecologistas en Acción, and Oxfam, who denounce the government’s “climate inaction” in meeting international commitments related to climate change.
This action is part of a series of legal actions taken by environmental organizations in several European countries, such as France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
In France, the state was condemned in 2021 for its shortcomings in the fight against global warming, while in the Netherlands, the government was obliged in 2018 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The complaint before the Supreme Court represents the “first climate litigation against the state in the history of Spain,” Greenpeace said in a statement.
The complaint seeks to have the court rule on the “climate emergency” and follow the example of other European supreme courts in forcing the State and all administrations to comply with their international commitments, according to the statement.
Specifically, the NGOs want the justice system to urge the government to increase its current emissions reduction target to comply with the 2015 Paris Agreement and not exceed an average global temperature rise of 1.5 oC.
“A favorable ruling would not only be an achievement in the legal fight against climate change but would also set an important precedent in Spanish law in terms of the obligations of public authorities to protect natural heritage and environmental quality,” said the NGOs’ lawyer, Jaime Doreste, quoted in the statement.
The government of Socialist Pedro Sánchez, who has declared a “climate emergency,” managed to pass a law in 2021 to boost the ecological transition and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
However, Greenpeace and other environmental associations consider that this law is insufficient to meet the targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
