Farmers demand protection against climate change from the federal government
Published: Thursday, Oct 24th 2024, 10:50
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Swiss farmers and agricultural associations are calling on the federal government to meet its climate commitments, particularly at international level. They have appealed to the Federal Administrative Court (FAC) to "confront the Department of the Environment with its responsibility".
The farmers affected are represented by the lawyers' collective Avocat.e.s pour le climat. They confirmed to the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday evening that a complaint will be filed this week.
They are defending themselves against a recent refusal by the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) to act on their complaint from last spring. This complaint is aimed at ensuring that this authority respects Switzerland's climate commitments, such as the Paris Agreement ratified in 2017.
The complainants are six individual farmers and five associations: Uniterre, the Small Farmers' Association, BioGenève, Schweizer Bergheimat and Les Jardins de Cocagne.
As their lawyers explained, they are of the opinion that "Switzerland has violated and continues to violate its legal obligations to reduce greenhouse gases".
Climate seniors as role models
They recall the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) last April, which condemned Switzerland for failing to act on climate issues and ruled in favor of the climate seniors.
In this logic, "the farmers must be recognized as having the quality to demand concrete measures from the authorities", is their opinion. The complainants speak of "not only physical and psychological damage, but also damage to property".
The individuals and associations concerned "hope that the FAC will correct course and instruct the federal government to take all measures to protect the rights of farmers in the face of climate change", their lawyers wrote in a post on the social network LinkedIn.
©Keystone/SDA
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