Why Aurora's climate lawsuit was rejected

The Supreme Court in Sweden has dismissed a lawsuit brought by hundreds of young Swedes seeking to force the Swedish state to take stronger action to fight climate change. 

The youth-led group Aurora filed a class action lawsuit against the Swedish state in November 2022. Aurora argued that the Swedish state was violating the European Convention on Human Rights by not taking sufficient action against climate change.

The Supreme Court has now dismissed Aurora's lawsuit on procedural grounds. The court stated that a climate lawsuit raises questions about the constitutional boundary between the roles of the courts and the democratic bodies deciding on which specific climate measures Sweden should take. The court also emphasized that there are very high requirements for individuals to have the right to bring such a claim against a state. In this case, the members of the Aurora class action lawsuit hadn't explained how they were personally affected by climate change.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court did say similar climate cases could be considered if filed by an association that meets certain requirements of representativeness and suitability.