Thousands protest across Switzerland for end to fossil fuel plants

In Geneva, protesters gathered outside bank Crédit Suisse to protest against its investments in fossil fuels. © Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Some 8,500 people took to the streets of eight Swiss cities on Friday as part of demonstrations around the country against fossil fuel plants, according to organisers.

In Zurich where some one thousand turned out, the mainly young demonstrators called for a break with fossil fuels. Their protest was directed especially against an emergency power plant in Birr, canton Aargau, which is to run on oil and gas, and a planned liquefied natural gas terminal in Muttenz, canton Basel Country, which is to use natural gas from Qatar. The demonstration was authorised by police.

Similar protests were also organised in other Swiss cities on Friday in response to a call from the Climate Strike movement for international action.

“Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the term energy crisis has been on everyone’s lips. However, it is not a general energy crisis but a fossil and nuclear crisis,” Climate Strike representative Corentin Mottet in canton Valais told public broadcaster RTS. Strikers said the federal government had “already failed to initiate a socio-ecological change during the coronavirus crisis”, and must now act to “break the fossil fuel wave”.