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Greta Thunberg charged with disobeying police order

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is set to face trial over disobeying police during a climate demonstration in Malmö earlier this summer.

Published: 6 July 2023 05:41 CEST
Greta Thunberg charged with disobeying police order
Greta Thunberg being moved by police at a climate protest in Malmö in June. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The prosecutor said she had charged the 20-year-old activist after she “refused to obey police orders to leave the site” of a protest in the southern city of Malmö on June 19th.

Thunberg joined the protest organised by environmental activist group “Ta tillbaka framtiden” (Reclaim the Future) as they attempted to block the entrance and exit to the Malmö harbour to protest the use of fossil fuel.

“We choose to not be bystanders, and instead physically stop the fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future,” Thunberg said in an Instagram post at the time.

On Wednesday, the group said: “After blocking the activities that are burning our future, we are now being charged with criminal offences.

“While charges are being brought against us, the real crime is going on inside the doors we have blocked”.

The charge can at most lead to a six-month jail sentence, but prosecutor Charlotte Ottesen told the Sydsvenskan newspaper it normally results in a fine.

A hearing at the Malmö district court has been scheduled for the end of July, the newspaper said.

Greta Thunberg was just 15 when she began her “School Strike for the Climate” in front of Sweden’s parliament in Stockholm.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:

She and a small group of youths founded the Fridays for Future movement, which quickly became a global phenomenon.

In addition to her climate strikes, the young activist regularly lambasts governments and politicians for not properly addressing climate issues.

At the end of March, she condemned what she called an “unprecedented betrayal” from leaders after the publication of the latest report by the IPCC, the UN’s climate advisory panel.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

Why did Sweden’s emissions drop in 2023 – and what’s in store for the future?

Sweden's greenhouse gas emissions fell by two percent last year, but the good news may be short-lived.

Published: 20 June 2024 09:39 CEST
Why did Sweden's emissions drop in 2023 – and what's in store for the future?

In 2023, the Scandinavian country’s emissions amounted to 44.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, a drop of about one tonne from 2022, according to preliminary statistics, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

The two percent decrease was in line with a 1.6 percent drop announced by Statistics Sweden in late May.

The EPA said the 2023 figure represented a decrease of 38 percent from 1990.

The EPA attributed the year-on-year drop primarily to lower emissions from industry – in particular the cement, iron and steel industries, due to lower production as a result of Sweden’s economic recession – and the electric and district heating sector, due to lower electricity prices.

“Emissions have continued to decrease, not least in industry and electric and district heating, which form part of the EU’s emissions trading system,” Anna-Karin Nyström, the head of the EPA’s climate target division said.

“The pace has slowed compared to the year before, when above all domestic transport and (fuel-based) work machinery contributed to a sharp reduction.”

But in March, an independent panel of experts tasked with reviewing climate policy said the government’s plans would lead to short-term emissions increases in 2024 and knock it off-course from its 2030 reduction target.

The Swedish Climate Policy Council, said in the March report that “policy adopted in 2023 will increase emissions and does not lead towards the fulfilment of Sweden’s climate goals and EU commitments by 2030”.

The council said several measures, such as a reduced fuel tax, put climate ambitions at risk.

But it also lamented a lack of concrete measures in the government’s “climate policy action plan”, a roadmap that the government is required by law to present every four years.

Sweden’s Minister for Climate and the Environment Romina Pourmokhtari said she was “not particularly worried” about the review’s assessments.

“They are based on the government’s policy announcements during 2023, and there are several measures that have been added since then,” Pourmokhtari said.

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