Swedish climate worrier Greta Thunberg asked the U.N. on Tuesday to back her lawsuit against Germany and a selection of other countries that use fossil fuel to drive their economies.
Thunberg’s legal claim alleges minors face ”increased death and disease” as a result of climate change, therefore countries that use fossil fuels should face consequences.
China, which accounts for 30 percent of global emissions, has been specifically excluded from the action.
The 17-year-old is joined in the lawsuit by a range of petitioners between the ages of eight and 17 representing a host of countries around the world, as reported by Breitbart News.
Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey have specifically been singled out for attention, being accused of ”breaching their obligations under the international Convention on the Rights of Child, by promoting fossil fuels and failing to curb greenhouse gas emissions for decades, despite knowing about the risks of climate change,” the group said in a press release, as reported by Deutsche Welle newsagency.
With the filing, Thunberg and her fellow activists are escalating a confrontation with the five countries that stemmed from a lawsuit they formally filed to the U.N. Convention back in September 2019.
The complaint’s original filing came on the same day Thunberg unleashed an emotional tirade on world leaders at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you,” said the Swedish teenager in her planned remarks.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she added.
The 16 petitioning children range from 8 to 17 years old and hail from Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Marshall Islands, Nigeria, Palau, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia, and the United States.
The complaint was filed through the Third Optional Protocol, a mechanism which allows children to formally request the U.N. take action regarding the petitioner’s cause of choice.
Three countries – Brazil, France and Germany – have responded to the lawsuit, according to the press release, arguing the claims against them were ”ill-founded or unsubstantiated,” the complaint was ”inadmissible in the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child,” and that ”the climate crisis is so global that no state bears responsibility.”
Deutsche Welle reports the activists said these objections are ”baseless,” adding ”the countries should be judged for their conduct rather than words.”
The complaint does not name China, because it has not signed the part of the Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty allowing children to seek justice for breaching the agreement.
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