At the end of a process initiated by children, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday, August 28, that the country’s climate goals “rape[ai]within the Constitution » by failing to sufficiently protect the population, the plaintiffs’ lawyers complained.
The court found that these objectives “they violate the Constitution by not sufficiently protecting the fundamental rights of individuals”the lawyers reported at the end of the hearing.
Carbon emission reduction targets are not met
Known as Woodpecker et al. v. South Korea, the case sought to show that Seoul’s modest climate goals – cutting carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 compared with 2018 – constituted a violation of constitutionally guaranteed human rights.
The case involves 62 civil parties, most of whom were under the age of five when the complaint was filed in 2022. Choi Hee-woo, nicknamed “Woodpecker” by his parents, was then just a 20-week-old fetus.
In 2021, South Korea pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 290 million tons by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, the country would have had to reduce its carbon emissions by 5.4% each year by 2023, which did not happen.
