Lake Wohlensee, the Niederried-Oltigenmatt Reserve and the European Court of Human Rights

10 May 2024

Many of Switzerland’s 1,500 lakes are reservoirs. The country pioneered eco-friendly electricity, or ‘white energy,‘ in the nineteenth century. Even trains have been running on this energy since the 1920s.

Switzerland is also a forerunner in a city heating system. In the 1950s, for example, this facility could already supply 40,000 homes and businesses in Basel. Business and government institutions also respect natural heritage and resources.

However, citizens are the most important asset for respecting nature and natural resources. Even cigarette butts often (still) end up in the appropriate waste bins. The (predominantly small-scale) agricultural sector gives stock, flora and fauna space as far as possible in this densely populated country.

The agricultural sector is also subsidised in Switzerland, but more effectively, selectively and restrictively than the European Union’s budget (around 40%). This European Union also torpedoes environmentally friendly investments by Dutch fishermen (electric pulse fishing, derived from the ancient Danish Snurrevod fishery) to maintain environmentally damaging fisheries in other countries.

Dutch farming is also decimated because of dogmatic national and European politics, ignoring the context of one of the world’s most densely populated areas and showing a lack of respect for the agricultural sector, which has also been subsidized by the European Union, to be decimated.

Switzerland is a role model for pragmatic information, nature and environmental management in Europe. Hikers, summer and winter sporters, picnickers, and other tourists along the shores of lakes, streams, and rivers generally (still) clean up their litter. Otherwise, clean-up services are on standby.

Across the country, there are numerous (private) museums and information offices and their pragmatic approach to the themes of environment and energy transition. Switzerland is a bottom-up country and not a centralised top-down nation!

The Erlebniswelt für die Energiewende (above) and the Science- und Erlebniscenter Primeo Energie Kosmos für Klima und Energie, Primeo Energie in Münchenstein (canton Basel-Landschaft)

From this perspective, it is also incorrect to classify Switzerland as an ‘environmental sinner’ (European Court of Human Rights, Case 53600/20 Verein of Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz and others versus Switzerland, 09-04-2024). In fact, it was the European Court of Human Rights and Greenpeace & C0 versus Switzerland.

A judge’s first task is to prove the facts. This judge did not do so, neither in terms of (historical) government measures at national, cantonal, and municipal levels nor in terms of citizen engagement and involvement, not to mention the lack and arbitrary use of legal grounds.

The Wohlensee in canton Bern is unaware of this juridical mismanagement at the European level. This lake is de facto a widened Aare over 12 kilometres. It supplies power to the city of Bern and surrounding villages.

The first large hydroelectric power station in Europe was built in Rheinfelden (canton Aargau) in 1898. Two (Swiss) engineers, Agostino Nizzola (1869-1961) and Charles E.L. Brown (1863-1924), subsequently developed a global network (present-day ABB) of electricity and machinery devices.

Not only is the Mühleberg power station an impressive structure, but the region is also a beautiful nature reserve, as is the other power station in the Aare at Niederried, a few kilometres upstream.

Switzerland was also one of the pioneers in establishing protected nature reserves, and the densely populated habitable part has many nature reserves, large and small.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) wrote its manifesto in Morges (canton of Vaud). Moreover, Switzerland was among the first countries to create national parks.