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Climatic elderly people go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. There they want to assert their rights. They are supported by the environmental organization Greenpeace. The decision was made by a large majority in the association. The Swiss climate lawsuit was one of the first of its kind at the Court of Justice and could set a precedent for the whole of Europe.
In a letter to the Federal Council in October 2016, climate leaders and various individuals rebuked various omissions by the authorities in the area of climate protection. They therefore called for additional measures to be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Hot summers kill older people: the climate crisis is to blame
Older people, who come from all over Switzerland, argued, among other things, that failures in climate protection led to more frequent, longer and intense periods of heat. And especially older women are at a much higher risk of heat-related health damage for physiological reasons. Many people have already died from it.
The Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Uvek) did not respond to the complaint. It should be considered that climatic elderly people do not have the right to sue.
Climatic older women have no right to sue
The courts also did not accept the arguments of the older women. Older women are not the only population group affected by the effects of climate change. In this sense, there is no particular closeness to the relationship between older people.
The complainants’ concerns should not be asserted through legal channels, but through political means. The Federal Supreme Court only sees judicial protection for the elderly when the consequences of climate change are inevitable.
“They didn’t take us seriously three times”
However, climatic seniors are not satisfied with that. “We were not taken seriously three times, the content of the problem was never discussed,” said Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti, co-chair of Climate Seniors, in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. She is dismayed that the state does not want to take preventive measures.
In an open letter to the Federal Council, older people explain again why they are filing a complaint against Switzerland in Strasbourg. He is calling on the Federal Council and the authorities to “finally do all that is necessary with climate protection to be able to adequately protect those who are already affected today and those who will live in the future.”
With a sailboat from Basel to Strasbourg
The CO, approved by parliament two weeks agotwo– Designated act Wydler-Wälti as insufficient. However, for strategic reasons, they would not support a referendum. However, he calls on politicians to raise fuel taxes, introduce a quota system for flights or launch an offensive against solar energy.
To underscore the climate concerns of older people, Greenpeace’s Beluga sailboat will accompany individual elderly women on the Rhine from Basel to Strasbourg. With shipment and delivery in court, the Swiss case will gain international importance.
According to its own information, Greenpeace supports various climate actions around the world, for example in the Philippines, Germany or Portugal. Legal means are meant to awaken politics to advance the fight against climate change. (euc / SDA)
