Court orders South Korea to specify plans to cut carbon emissions 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 more specific plans to ensure implementation, saying that they failed to demonstrate that the policy was unconstitutional.

However, the court did uphold the plaintiffs’ argument that the country needed to establish plans for cutting emissions from 2031 to 2049 and ordered the government to modify the carbon neutrality law by Feb. 28, 2026, to include such plans.

Lee Eun-ae, one of the court’s nine justices, said the lack of concrete plans to reduce emissions after 2031 is unconstitutional because it fails to sufficiently protect basic rights, infringes on the environmental rights of plaintiffs and “transfers an excessive burden” to future generations.

The South Korean Ministry of Environment said in a statement that it respects the court’s decision and plans to “faithfully implement follow-up measures.”

Activists and lawyers representing the plaintiffs welcomed the court’s decision, expressing hope that it could inspire similar action in Asia and other parts of the world. They urged the government and legislators to strengthen the country’s 2030 target as well as set up plans from 2031 to 2049.

Han Je-ah, one of the youngest plaintiffs at 12, said the ruling felt “joyful and satisfying like a wish coming true.”

“The climate crisis is not a future problem, but a reality that everyone is experiencing now,” she said. “I hope this ruling will bring bigger changes so that children like me don’t have to file constitutional complaints in the future."

The government of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office in 2022, has focused much of its energy policy on promoting nuclear-generated electricity. Environmentalists have criticized South Korea over what they see as a weak commitment to reduce dependence on coal and other fossil fuel and promote renewable energy sources. South Korea currently gets about 9% of its electricity from renewable sources, significantly lower than the 34% average among rich nations making up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The Korea Federation for Environmental Movements, an activist group, criticized the court for not forcing the country to strengthen its climate target. In a statement, the group said the government shouldn’t get a “free pass” on its “passive greenhouse gas reduction targets that are increasing critical environmental risks and future uncertainties.”

But Mie Asaoka, a lawyer who is supporting a similar climate campaign in Japan, called the South Korean ruling a “significant judicial decision in Asia” and expressed hope that it would serve as a “catalyst for change” in Japan.

She said Japanese plaintiffs have recently filed a climate lawsuit against 10 thermal power companies while calling for the country to commit to stronger plans to cut carbon emissions for 2030 and 2035.

South Korea's Constitutional Court Chief Justice Lee Jong-seok arrives at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

South Korea's Constitutional Court Chief Justice Lee Jong-seok, center, and other judges sit upon their arrival at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

South Korea's Constitutional Court Chief Justice Lee Jong-seok, center, and other judges sit upon their arrival at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

In one of the deadliest cult-related massacres ever, the remains of more than 430 victims have been recovered since police raided Good News International Church in a forest some 70 kilometers (40 miles) inland from the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi.

Seventeen months later, many in the area are still shaken by what happened despite repeated warnings about the church’s leader.

Autopsies on more than 100 bodies showed deaths from starvation, strangulation, suffocation, and injuries sustained from blunt objects. A gravedigger, Shukran Karisa Mangi, said he believed more mass graves were yet to be discovered. At least 600 people are reported missing, according to the Kenya Red Cross.

Here are some details about the case.

The evangelical leader of Good News, Paul Mackenzie, is accused of instructing his followers to starve to death for the opportunity to meet Jesus. Mackenzie pleaded not guilty to charges in the murders of 191 children, multiple counts of manslaughter and other crimes. If convicted, he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Some in Malindi who spoke to The Associated Press said Mackenzie’s confidence while in custody showed the wide-ranging power some evangelists project even as their teachings undermine government authority, break the law, or harm followers desperate for healing and other miracles.

It’s not only Mackenzie, said Thomas Kakala, a self-described bishop with the Malindi-based Jesus Cares Ministry International, referring to questionable pastors he knew in the capital Nairobi. “You look at them. If you are sober and you want to hear the word of God, you wouldn’t go to their church. But the place is packed.”

A man like Mackenzie, who refused to join the fellowship of pastors in Malindi and rarely quoted Scripture, could thrive in a country like Kenya, said Kakala. Six detectives have been suspended for ignoring multiple warnings about Mackenzie’s illegal activities.

Kakala said he felt discouraged in his attempts to discredit Mackenzie years ago. The evangelist had played a tape of Kakala on his TV station and declared him an enemy. Kakala felt threatened.

Mackenzie, a former street vendor and cab driver with a high-school education, apprenticed with a Malindi preacher in the late 1990s. There, in the laid-back tourist town, he opened his own church in 2003.

A charismatic preacher, he was said to perform miracles and exorcisms, and could be generous with his money. His followers included teachers and police officers. They came to Malindi from across Kenya, giving Mackenzie national prominence that spread the pain of the deaths across the country.

The first complaints against Mackenzie concerned his opposition to formal schooling and vaccination. He was briefly detained in 2019 for opposing the government’s efforts to assign national identification numbers to Kenyans, saying the numbers were satanic.

He closed his Malindi church premises later that year and urged his congregation to follow him to Shakahola, where he leased 800 acres of forest inhabited by elephants and big cats.

Church members paid small sums to own plots in Shakahola. They were required to build houses and live in villages with biblical names like Nazareth, according to survivors. They said Mackenzie grew more demanding, with people from different villages forbidden from communicating or gathering.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, which witnesses said strengthened Mackenzie’s vision of the end times, the leader ordered more rigorous fasting that became even more stringent by the end of 2022. Parents were forbidden from feeding their children, witnesses said.

Like much of East Africa, Kenya is dominated by Christians. While many are Anglican or Catholic, evangelical Christianity has been spreading widely since the 1980s. Many pastors style their ministries in the manner of successful U.S. televangelists, investing in broadcasting and advertising.

Many of Africa’s evangelical churches are run like sole proprietorships, without the guidance of trustee boards or laity. Pastors are often unaccountable, deriving authority from their perceived ability to perform miracles or make prophecies. Some, like Mackenzie, can seem all-powerful.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A piece of clothing lies in the bush near the forest where dozens of bodies were found in shallow graves in the village of Shakahola, near the coastal city of Malindi, in southern Kenya, on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)