Hundreds of demonstrators in Bern demand adoption of new climate law

Organisers of the protest say closer to 1,500 attended the rally, called for by the Climate Strike movement. Klimastreik

Around 500 people took part in a rally in the capital Bern on Saturday afternoon to demand the adoption of a proposed new climate law, which voters are being asked to approve or reject at the ballot box on June 18.

Organisers of the protest say closer to 1,500 attended the rally, called for by the Climate Strike movement. The movement supports the proposed law, even though it considers the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 set out in the text to be too late, Climate Strike said before the march.

Among the demonstrators marching through the city’s old town towards the parliament square were the president of the Green Party, Balthasar Glättli, and a senator from the same party, Lisa Mazzone.

The new climate act aims to make Switzerland climate-neutral by 2050 by accelerating the country’s transition to renewable energies. But it does not ban the use of fossil fuels, as the authors of a popular initiative (dubbed the Glacier initiative) to tackle climate change had called for. The demonstrators oppose the construction of any further oil or gas power plants and want to see a major expansion in renewable energies.

Switzerland trails other countries in its strategy to tackle climate change and meet targets set in the Paris Agreement, ranking 22^nd in the 2023 Climate Change Performance Index.  A previous legislative proposal on CO2 failed at the ballot box in 2021.