The sitting, organized in the middle of rush hour, caused a major traffic jam. Climate activists briefly blocked a motorway slip road in Lausanne, Switzerland on Monday before being dislodged by the police.
Several activists sat in the road at around 8 a.m. to prevent traffic by holding “Renovate Switzerland” banners named after their movement. The police patrols that arrived on the spot quickly evacuated the activists without incident.
Thermal renovation of housing
In a tweet, the cantonal police indicated that they had “arrested about ten people who blocked the stationary vehicles (…) between 07:50 and 08:20. People will be reported. Traffic was restored at 08:22.
These activists – for whom this is the first action in Switzerland and who claim to be part of a movement that already exists in a dozen countries – demand from the federal government a plan for the thermal renovation of housing to reduce CO2 emissions. and Switzerland’s energy dependence. A theme that has a particular resonance in the midst of the Russian gas crisis.
1 billion Swiss francs
“Currently, Switzerland has no concrete plan to meet its climate commitments and reduce CO2 emissions,” Cécile Bessire, a member of the collective, told AFP. The activists “demand that the Federal Council take the simplest and most obvious first steps to find a solution to the crisis”, she adds, calling for the implementation of a national plan to renovate, from here 2040, the million houses that urgently need insulation.
They are calling for subsidies for the energy renovation of buildings of 1 billion francs (about the same amount in euros) per year from 2023. This is 5 times more than currently, according to the movement, which also calls for the training of 100,000 workers. more in the building sector.
