Climate law: What journalists need to know ahead of the vote in June
The Climate Journalism Network Switzerland organises events for members and all journalists interested in reporting on climate issues. Our most recent roundtable took place on 3 May 2023 and focused on the new climate law (Klimaschutz-Gesetz / Loi pour la protection du climate), which the Swiss population will vote on.
For the first time, Switzerland could enshrine the goal of reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050 in its law. The debate in the run-up to the vote on 18 June is bound to be intense. How can journalists ensure that they cover this complex issue in a critical, scientific and in-depth manner?
We had three fantastic speakers who opened the roundtable with short presentations:
- Marcel Hänggi, a former science journalist, shared a brief history of the Gletscher-Initiative that he launched after covering COP21 in Paris and how it changed Switzerland’s climate policy (download presentation slides)
- Alex Tiefenbacher, climate journalist at Das Lamm and founding member of our network, introduced the CO2 law and its current stakes (download presentation slides)
- Augustin Fragnière, an expert in climate policy at the University of Lausanne, unravelled the content of the new climate law, from a scientific perspective (download presentation slides)
The presentations and the subsequent open discussion were held in English. Rachel Barbara Häubi (Heidi.news) and Lukas Schnyder (Endemol Shine Group) from our network hosted the evening event, which took place in the editorial office of SWI swissinfo.ch, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) in Bern.
Our meetings and network are open to all professional journalists and journalism students in Switzerland.