Climate justice

The climate crisis means not just rising temperatures, but also higher sea levels and more extreme weather events. The consequences are being felt ever more distinctly around the world: heavy rainfall, flooding, extreme drought, melting glaciers and low-lying coasts disappearing into the sea. Soil erosion and landslides are on the rise, entire ecosystems are collapsing, and once rich agricultural soils are becoming depleted. While the industrialised nations are the ones mainly responsible for global warming, it is mainly the people in poor countries south of the equator who suffer the consequences; ever more frequently their livelihoods are being destroyed by the impacts of climate change. This is what motivates HEKS/EPER and its partner organizations to militate for greater climate justice.

The rich industrialised countries must now rapidly and resolutely reduce their climate-damaging emissions to zero. They must also offer appropriate support to developing countries being affected by a climate crisis largely not of their own making, as they strive to adapt and protect themselves against it. But climate justice also means intergenerational justice: we must act now to preserve for future generations an environment that is worth living in. This must mean taking account of and respecting the fundamental human rights of affected communities, including the right to development, to water, or their land rights.

News
Pong Saron and Laeb Leom Corn Farmer in Battambang
Photo reportage
Fighting climate change with knowledge

Agroecological methods and new irrigation techniques: The ‘Nurture Project’ by HEKS and Caritas Switzerland supports smallholder farming families in Cambodia in meeting the challenges of climate change and increasing their yields. Read our four portraits to find out how.

To the portraits
Somali solar pump and Birka water
Photo reportage
The drought is over - but the suffering remains great
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Saatgut
Press release of the Swiss coalition Right to Seed of 7 June 2024
UN criticises EFTA for jeopardising the right to food

The member countries of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) are jeopardising the right to food. This is what the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, writes in a letter to the four countries. 

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Das sierra-leonische Unternehmen Rewilding Maforki plant eine Baumplantage auf mindestens 25 000 Hektaren, eine Fläche so gross wie Manhattan, um 12 Millionen Tonnen CO2 über 50 Jahre zu speichern.
Media release, 3 May 2024
Controversial carbon offset project in Sierra Leone

The trade in carbon credits has become a lucrative business in recent years. In the West African country of Sierra Leone, international investors are planning large-scale tree plantations to be used for carbon offset projects. Yet, an investigation by Swiss Church Aid HEKS/EPER reveals that numerous farming families who own the land have apparently not agreed to the project in the manner prescribed by law. 

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Pari: Eine Insel fordert Gerechtigkeit
Media release, 8 November 2023
The four plaintiffs are granted legal aid

In October, the Zug Cantonal Court approved the request of Asmania, Arif, Bobby and Edi for legal aid. For the four plaintiffs, this is an important interim step in the continuation of the proceedings against the Zug-based Holcim AG. 

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Asmania in Zürich beim feministischen Streik
Call for Climate Justice
«Even if we lose, we will fight on»

Climate change is causing sea-level rise and destroying the lives of people on Indonesia's Pari Island. The Swiss cement corporation Holcim bears some of the responsibility for this. Four residents of the island are seeking justice and have therefore filed a suit against Holcim in Switzerland. Two of them visited Switzerland in June.

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Background
2309> Bild > Teaser > Landrecht > FR
Focus
Carbon offsetting and land grabbing

For the implementation of climate compensation projects - for example reforestation - states and companies need a lot of land. This has serious consequences for the people in the global south who live on and from this land today. HEKS/EPER is committed to fair access to land and fair solutions to the climate crisis.

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Call for climate Justice: Eine Insel fordert Gerechtigkeit
An island demands justice
Call for Climate Justice

The inhabitants of Pari Island in Indonesia are experiencing climate change first hand. Their homeland is slowly but surely sinking. Support their fight for climate justice and sign their call.

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Ja zum CO2-Gesetz
Photographic report
Women in Senegal protect the mangroves
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Frau auf einer Plantage bei der Arbeit
Policy Paper Climate Justice
Climate Justice: Understanding, vision and political demands
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Ja zum CO2-Gesetz
Climate justice
Together for more climate change justice

The climate crisis is a highly complex global problem against which we can do little individually. To realise its commitment to climate justice and to mitigating climate change, HEKS/EPER therefore works with a range of national and international partner organisations.

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People collecting water from the point served by the hybrid water system.
Thematic Factsheet
Resilience to Climate and Disaster Risk
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Bauer bei der Arbeit
HEKS/EPER and the 2030 Agenda
The path to sustainable development

The UN «2030 Agenda» is a global plan for promoting sustainable development up to 2030. For the current decade, the «2030 Agenda» and its guiding principle of «leaving no-one behind» constitute a key priority and frame of reference for the work of HEKS/EPER abroad and in Switzerland. Because equitable access to social, economic, cultural and political life lays the solid groundwork needed for thriving, inclusive and peaceful societies.

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A Compendium of Good Practices in Disaster Risk Reduction
A Compendium of Good Practices in Disaster Risk Reduction
Where people and their land are safer
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Take action

Climate Conversations

Set your own life on a climate-friendly path

Many Swiss citizens are concerned about climate change. Very few are prepared, nonetheless, to adapt their lifestyle and forego a car, vacation home or exotic foods, for example. The “Climate Conversations” launched in 2019 by HEKS/EPER and Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund in German-speaking Switzerland aim to change this. Developed in the United Kingdom, this method embodies technical and psychological aspects and relies on group dynamics and support. And successfully so. Studies show that thanks to the «Climate Conversations», people have been able to halve their CO2 emissions in the space of five years.
 

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Bringen Sie das eigene Leben auf Klimakurs!
Silvan Hohl

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