Heat-hit Swiss residents demand action as politicians clash

People affected by Switzerland’s hot summer have urged politicians to act, while lawmakers remain divided over the lessons to draw from the extreme heat, SRF reported after its political programme Arena.

Retiree Monika Rellstab said residents at her care home had suffered because there was no air conditioning. Staff resorted to unconventional measures, including using baby baths to cool their feet. “It is high time politicians did something,” she said.

The heat has also affected forests, agriculture and waterways. Forester Thomas Kuhn said forests themselves acted as a form of air conditioning, but maintaining them required reliable funding. He criticised plans by the Federal Council to cut funds for climate-resilient reforestation. Swiss People’s Party lawmaker Ernst Wandfluh also opposed the planned reduction.

Sugar beet farmer Martin Flury said he expected significant losses from this year’s harvest. “It is a tragedy,” he said. In Switzerland’s waterways, meanwhile, low water levels have harmed wildlife. David Bittner, managing director of the Swiss Fisheries Association, said the organisation expected millions of dead fish, crayfish and other aquatic animals.

Green Party President Lisa Mazzone said the heat showed that the climate crisis had fully entered everyday life. Switzerland was doing far too little to protect the climate, she said, adding that adaptation alone would not be enough.

Green Liberal Party parliamentary group leader Corina Gredig called for both a water strategy and a heat strategy, while also warning that climate protection must not be forgotten. Switzerland could take a leading role because it was one of the world’s richest countries and a leader in innovation, she said.

Wandfluh argued that Switzerland could not save the climate on its own and was already doing a great deal to combat climate change. But further steps were not always straightforward in agriculture. “You cannot electrify a cow,” he said.

Gredig also criticised the Swiss People’s Party and the Free Democratic Party, saying the Federal Council’s majority from those parties had done very little for climate protection in recent years. Hanspeter Hilfiker, the Free Democratic mayor of Aarau and president of the Swiss Cities Association, defended his party and said it clearly supported the 2050 climate strategy.

Hilfiker said cities were particularly affected by heat and called for a national action plan to coordinate adaptation to changing climatic conditions across political lines.