Spain’s Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), which set Spain’s climate and energy proposals. The court found that the plan is in accordance with the law and commitments made by the EU, despite several environmental groups’ insistence that it is arbitrary.

At present, the PNIEC establishes a goal of a 23 percent reduction of emissions by 2030—as compared to 1990 levels. The appellants, including environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) Greenpeace, requested that the PNIEC be partially annulled because they see the reduction goals as insufficient to keep Spain below the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming limit. Instead, the appellants suggested that Spain’s reduction goals should be no less than 55 percent by 2030, which is the same figure that the EU set as an average for all member countries.

The legal proceedings began in January 2020 when the appellants filed a lawsuit over Spain’s alleged failure to comply with the obligation under EU Regulation 2018/1999 to approve the PNIEC and a long term strategy (ELP) before 2020. Then, in March 2021, Spain’s government approved the PNIEC. Five environmental NGOs filed an appeal in June. In their appeal, the NGOs denounced the government’s failure to meet the emission reduction targets acquired by the Paris Agreement.

Thursday’s judgment pointed out that the Paris Agreement implies obligations assumed by all parties—including Spain—who cannot be accused of non-compliance. This is because all of the countries party to the agreement joined the commitment at the level of the EU and, as shown in all the documents provided, the EU on the world stage has the greatest climate commitments in the agreement. With that understanding, the court found that Spain’s government exercised legitimate national and international policy powers in setting the reduction goals that they did.