Written by Park Ju-min and Park Min-woo
SEOUL (Reuters) – One of South Korea's highest courts on Tuesday heard a lawsuit brought by 20 young environmental activists against the government for failing to protect it by failing to address climate change. The meeting started.
The constitutional court's hearing is the first climate-related case in Asia, the plaintiffs said, and includes four petitions from children and infants dating back to 2020, including one that was nicknamed Woodpecker at the time. This includes those caused by unborn fetuses.
The ruling comes weeks after Europe's highest human rights court ruled that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to take sufficient steps to combat climate change. Courts in Brazil, Brazil, and Peru are also considering human rights-based climate change litigation. .
“South Korea's current climate change plan is insufficient to limit temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius and violates the state's obligation to protect fundamental rights,” the plaintiffs said in a media statement.
Scientists predict that if global temperatures rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial averages, it will cause catastrophic and irreversible effects ranging from melting ice sheets to collapsing ocean currents. He states that he is deaf.
The combustion of fossil fuels and the carbon they emit is linked to rising temperatures, and South Korea's economy is heavily dependent on such fuels for growth. It aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Government lawyers told the court that authorities are doing everything they can to reduce carbon emissions and not violate people's fundamental rights.
Lawyers also argued that the government did not discriminate against young people and argued that annual carbon reduction targets could be adjusted.
However, several activists said the government's response was unsatisfactory.
Dozens of young people, including a one-year-old woodpecker, gathered outside the Constitutional Court to criticize the government's inaction on climate change.
“Reducing carbon emissions continues to be postponed as if it's a homework assignment that can be done later, but ultimately the burden must fall on our children,” Woodpecker said. 's mother, Lee Dong-hyun, said.
The mother of the 8-year-old plaintiff said her children lived in constant fear.
“There is a mountain behind the house, so the children say the house might be hit by a landslide. And who knows? It could happen,” said mother Namkoun Soo-jin.
Last year, South Korea revised down its 2030 target for reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions, but maintained the national goal of cutting emissions by 40% from 2018 levels, known as rational adjustment.
(Reporting by Park Ju-min and Park Min-woo; Editing by Josh Smith and Miral Fahmy)
