Finnish flag close-up (Pixbay)
By AFP - Agence France
Finnish Supreme Court rejects complaint about government climate inaction
Finland's Supreme Administrative Court said on Wednesday that it had rejected a complaint filed by rights groups accusing the Finnish government of not doing enough to meet the country's climate targets.
A group of six environmental and human rights organizations filed the lawsuit in August, arguing that the government had violated the country's climate legislation.
They claimed that the Finnish government of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo had not taken sufficient measures to meet its legally binding climate targets. These targets include achieving climate neutrality by 2035 and having net negative emissions.
They argued that Finland was not on track to meet its emissions reduction targets, mainly due to excessive logging and a lack of efforts to reduce emissions from the agricultural and transport sectors.
They also claimed that the government had failed to adopt measures to increase the country's carbon sink, i.e. things that absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release.
The lawsuit was filed by the Finnish Nature Conservation Association, Greenpeace Norden, Amnesty International Finland, Grandmothers for Climate, Finnish Nature League, and Finnish Sami Youth.
However, in its decision published on Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court said that the case had been dismissed.
The court noted that the government had identified the need for additional measures to increase the carbon sink and that it was too early to conclude whether the measures were sufficient or not, as they had not yet come into force.
The case marks the second time that environmental organizations have tried to take the government to court over climate inaction.
In the previous case, concluded in 2023, the Supreme Administrative Court decided not to examine the complaint due to the fact that Finland's climate law had only been in force for a short time.
ank/jll/jj
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