SUSANNE WENGER A residential area in Basel on a very warm autumn day. The climate activist who welcomes us warmly into her home has grey hair. She has been campaigning on environmental issues for half a century. Retired nursery teacher and parent advisor Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti has eight grandchildren. She and other female peers have taken Switzerland to court because they believe Berne is not doing enough on climate change. They have given the climate debate a new twist by arguing that their rights have been violated. Wydler-Wälti and her husband live together in their terraced house. We can see a small garden from the lounge window. Books about the climate crisis are piled up on the sofa. One of them is called “How Women Can Save the Planet”. “This house is my one climate crime,” she proffers. It is too big for two people, even if it does have solar panels. Wydler-Wälti has always tried to live sustainably. She gave up flying long ago and only buys what she needs. She also keeps “every little bag and piece of string”. Recycle it, don’t throw it away, she learned from her parents. Duty of care Wydler-Wälti joined the green and women’s movements when she was a young mother. She calls 1986 a “traumatic” year in which the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Schweizerhalle chemical accident near Basel influenced her thinking. “The children were unable to go outside, because we didn’t know whether there were chemicals in the air.” Wydler-Wälti is not a member of any political party. She has never held political office. But when Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland was founded in 2016 in response to an idea by the environmental organisation Greenpeace, she jumped at the chance of becoming co-chair – a position she shares with Anne Mahrer, a 75-yearold former Green Party National Councillor from Geneva. The group currently has around 2,500 members, all of them female, whose ages range from 64 to over 90. These women are united by one cause: Switzerland must show greater ambition in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and achieving the goals of the Paris climate agreement. The retirees are using the Swiss constitu- “Grannies” take Switzerland to court to demand more action on climate change A group of older women called Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland has brought a case before the European Court of Human Rights to force Switzerland to do more on climate change. We talk to the group’s co-chair Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti, 73. tion and the European Convention on Human Rights as the basis for their action, arguing that the state has a duty of care to protect the right to life. Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change. Older people are more susceptible to their effects, they say, with older women particularly at risk of illness and death. Deadly heatwaves Statistics show that heatwaves are more dangerous for older women. According to a recent study conducted by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute on behalf of the FedRosmarie Wydler-Wälti (left) and Anne Mahrer presenting their case during a Grand Chamber public hearing at the European Court of Human Rights in March this year. Photo: Keystone Swiss Review / December 2023 / No.6 16 Profile
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