Swiss government rebuffs ECHR climate ruling: next stop Strasbourg

Five months after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) took Switzerland to task for its climate action, the government in Bern has hit back abruptly – Swiss policies are not inadequate, it says. When the ECHR ruled earlier this year that Switzerland had violated citizens’ rights by failing to take adequate climate action, reactions came thick and fast. Environmentalists welcomed what they saw as a trailblazing verdict, the right-wing People’s Party advocated completely leaving the Council of Europe (to which the ECHR is affiliated), while parliament rebuffed what it saw as “judicial activism” by the Strasbourg court. Meanwhile, the Swiss government – the ultimate target of the judgement – stayed above the fray, assessing its options: take steps to implement the (binding) ruling, follow parliament’s confrontational course, or find a compromise? On Wednesday, it opted to dig its heels in. In a clarifying statement outlining its position, it politely yet firmly disagreed with the ...