Six Youths v. Minister of Environment and Others

Six youth activists sued the Brazilian government, claiming the 2020 NDC update used an 'accounting trick' to increase allowable emissions while maintaining the same reduction percentages as the 2015 NDC. The plaintiffs argued this violated the principle of non-regression and the Paris Agreement. A federal judge denied the request for urgent injunctive relief, ruling that the updated NDC's goal of climate neutrality by 2060 and the nature of the calculation changes did not prove a lack of ambition or a violation of the principle of progression. The case is currently awaiting final judgement.

• The plaintiffs, members of Engajamundo and Fridays For Future Brazil, alleged that Brazil's updated 2020 NDC used a calculation maneuver to allow emissions between 200 million and 400 million tons of carbon dioxide more than the 2015 NDC proposed.
• The lawsuit argued that the 2020 NDC update violated the Paris Agreement, the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and the principle of non-regression of public policies.
• Plaintiffs claimed the government omitted specific additional commitments from the original INDC, including the goal of zero illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 2030 and the reforestation of 12 million hectares of forests by 2030.
• Federal Judge Moemi Martins de Oliveira denied the request for an urgent injunction, stating that the legal requirements under Article 300 of the Code of Civil Procedure were not met and that there was a risk of irreversibility.
• The court found that the 2020 NDC did not necessarily lack ambition because it included a target for climate neutrality by 2060.
• Judge Oliveira rejected the claim that the updated NDC violated the principle of progression, arguing that using a higher calculation basis (2.8 billion tons instead of 2.1 billion tons) while keeping the same reduction percentages would actually result in a higher absolute value of emissions reduction.

APA

Contributor, C. (2025). Six Youths v. Minister of Environment and Others. ClimaTalk. https://climatalk.org/2025/02/25/six-youths-minister-environment-others/

Chicago

Contributor, ClimaTalk. Six Youths v. Minister of Environment and Others. ClimaTalk, 2025. https://climatalk.org/2025/02/25/six-youths-minister-environment-others/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Contributor |first1=ClimaTalk |title=Six Youths v. Minister of Environment and Others |publisher=ClimaTalk |date=25 February 2025 |url=https://climatalk.org/2025/02/25/six-youths-minister-environment-others/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{contributor2025six, author = {Contributor, ClimaTalk}, title = {{Six Youths v. Minister of Environment and Others}}, institution = {ClimaTalk}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://climatalk.org/2025/02/25/six-youths-minister-environment-others/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }