Court orders South Korea to specify carbon emission cut plans through 2049

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered the government to back its climate goals with more concrete plans for action through 2049, handing a partial victory to climate campaigners who say the country's failure to cut emissions faster amounts to a violation of their rights.

The court, which weighs the constitutionality of laws, mandated the rewriting of the country's climate law while ruling on four climate cases raised by 255 plaintiffs, including many young people who were children or teenagers when they began filing the complaints against the government and lawmakers in 2020.

"Today's ruling confirms that climate change is an issue related to our fundamental rights and everyone has a right to be safe from climate change," Sejong Youn, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said in a news conference outside the court.

"The ball is now with the government and the National Assembly," he said, referring to South Korea's parliament. The campaigners argued that South Korea's current goal of cutting carbon emissions by 35% from 2018 levels by 2030 is inadequate to manage the impact of climate change, and that such objectives weren't backed by sufficient implementation plans.

They also pointed out that the country has yet to establish plans to reduce carbon emissions after 2031, despite its goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The plaintiffs allege that South Korea's lax climate policies violate their human rights by leaving them vulnerable to future deteriorations in the environment and climate-related harm.

The court did not require South Korea's government to set up a more ambitious 2030 target under its carbon neutrality act and also rejected the plaintiffs' calls for