Young Greens want ‘environmental responsibility’ in constitution

Campaigners handed in the signatures on a February afternoon marked by temperatures which they said were “not normal”. © Keystone / Peter Schneider

The youth section of the Swiss Green Party handed in over 105,000 signatures in Bern on Tuesday calling for environmental protection to be inscribed in the country’s constitution.

The environmental responsibility initiative calls for a clause requiring that the Swiss economy – including what it imports – “operates within the limits of the planet”.

While the exact scope of how this would be achieved is left open by the initiative text, it names six areas to be focussed on: climate, biodiversity, water consumption, land usage, atmospheric pollution, and the usage of pesticides.

+ Switzerland: small country, big carbon footprint

The text also demands a “socially acceptable” implementation within 10 years of being voted on.

A total of 100,000 signatures are needed to force a public vote in the Swiss direct democracy system. As such, if federal authorities validate the 105,000 signatures, and if parliament doesn’t come up with a compromise that would convince the campaigners to withdraw the initiative, the population will vote on it.

The text is also supported by the main Green Party, the left-wing Social Democrats, the Greenpeace association, and various climate protection groups and scientists.

A previous campaign by Swiss environmental campaigners, demanding net zero carbon emissions by 2050, was withdrawn last October after parliament came up with a counter-proposal.