Spanish government in court over climate plans. Activists claim failure to cut greenhouse gases

ENVIRONMENTAL activists in Spain have gone to the Supreme Court in Madrid over the Spanish government’s plans to cut emissions and meet climate change targets.

The action is a preliminary step in filing a lawsuit and is aimed at putting politicians under pressure and to highlight the environmental crisis facing the planet.

Lorena Ruiz-Huerta, a lawyer with pressure group Greenpeace, said Spain plan to cut carbon emissions by 23% from 1990 levels by the end of the decade fell short of the EU’s 55% target – a level scientists maintain is necessary to keep the earth’s temperatures from rising by 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030.

“The government is not listening to the science and is also disregarding the voice of people who have been asking for greater ambition,” she said outside of the top court in the Spanish capital.

Youth environmental movement Fridays for Future is also backing the action and a way of becoming publicly active again after the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit follows a legal challenge late last year when the government delayed in producing plans for climate control; it filed its plans in Brussels a year past the deadline.

Written by BayRadio