In April, following the historic ruling of the European Court of Human Rights against Switzerland for its inaction on climate change, Asti Roesle, campaign director of the Swiss Climate Alliance – made up of more than one hundred civil society organizations – united a dozen activists to block access to the Swiss National Bank. The Police took the data of all the protesters and sent them to the Prosecutor’s Office to open a judicial file.
Roesle is one of many Swiss climate activists who have open cases for civil disobedience against the climate inaction of states and companies. Now, the lawyers who have been defending this group for years have decided to join together to reverse the roles in the trials: that the citizens are the plaintiffs and the Governments and companies are the ones that occupy the dock.
“This is a legal network that reverses the current dynamic. That is, those who raise their voices in favor of the climate stop being on the side of the accused and that their place is occupied by those truly responsible for the climate crisis,” summarizes Tali Paschoud, a lawyer in Geneva and member of the committee. “Avocates pour le climat” (Climate Lawyers), the name of this organization.
The group, formed in September 2021, has exceeded 300 members this year, including lawyers and professionals who work in the legal field, such as university professors and doctoral students. The association has three main goals: to bring together all lawyers “sensitive” to the climate cause, to gather “useful legal resources” in this crusade and to “have a strong voice” in the public debate on the importance of climate litigation.
“Most of the founders met during the criminal trials defending climate activists. We feel the need to reverse the repeated dynamic of citizens accused by polluting companies. For this reason, the association offers citizens the possibility of taking action against the State or against companies due to the serious responsibility they have in the current climate crisis. We want to go from defense to attack,” explains Paschoud.
The association, the lawyer says, is or has been active in a dozen proceedings. “It is a platform from which the lawyers involved prepare and carry out judicial procedures. That is, the law is put at the service of the climate and the environment. Lawyers have to be very creative and bold to present these issues before the courts,” he emphasizes.
In his opinion, governments, both in Switzerland and in most developed countries, have “serious difficulties” in responding to the climate emergency despite “increasingly compelling scientific evidence.” “Faced with this reality, we intend to resort to justice to give concrete form to the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment,” he details.
The cases
At this time, the association has several representatives. Among them is a group of farmers, winegrowers, horticulturists and arborists from several regions (Zurich, Schwyz, Geneva, Neuchâtel and Vaud) who have sued the Swiss Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) for “its inaction in the face of climate change, which threatens crop yields.”
The argument of the lawsuit is that, due to its “insufficient climate policy”, this state agency compromises the “economic freedom and private property” of farmers. “In fact, by not taking serious measures to protect the Swiss population against global warming, DETEC is harming the profitability of these lands,” says Paschoud.
In 2023, after the press reported illegal works on the Théodule glacier in the Alps, where the Ski World Cup was held, these lawyers filed a complaint on behalf of several environmental organizations with the Cantonal Construction Commission of the Valais to shed light on the legality of these works. The court ruling ordered the urgent cessation of work and prohibited the use of all parts of the slope located outside the ski area, that is, an area of 25,000m2.
FIFA has also been in the target of the association. At the end of 2022, a complaint was filed with the Swiss Commission for Commercial Loyalty “for image washing.”
The football institution chaired by Gianni Infantino publicly stated that the World Cup organized by Qatar would be “carbon neutral.” In June 2023, FIFA was found guilty for its ecoposturing. The Swiss commission urged FIFA to refrain from making these statements in future events.
Public utility association
Paschoud clarifies that the lawyers who are members of the association are “volunteers”, none of them charge for providing these services. However, the actions “require funds to finance legal costs.” The group has a donation form open on its website.
This year, the Geneva tax authorities recognized this group as a “public utility association”, a distinction that confirms the importance of “putting law at the forefront of climate and the environment.”
“It must be clear that citizens of the world today face an unprecedented climate crisis. A main reason is that our political authorities are not complying with the law, which is why many companies are taking us down a path that is totally incompatible with the signed climate objectives,” the lawyer denounces.
The “good news,” he says, is that “we are already seeing German, French and Dutch authorities being judged for this inaction.” The same happens with the most polluting companies, all of them linked to the fossil fuel industry.
“We are optimistic about the judges’ willingness to make a law respectful of the limits of the planet. We believe that our role as an assistant to justice is necessary to achieve a will that, in general, remains up in the air,” he concludes.
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