Justice Beyond Targets
The Struggle for Climate Justice in Basel
MELINDA FECHNER AND MIROSLAVA FEDOTOVA IN CONVERSATION WITH AXEL SCHUBERT
The Basel 2030 initiative began in 2022 as a citizen-led response to the limitations of the city’s existing climate strategy. Until then, Basel, like many Swiss cities, had committed to long-term emission reductions, typically aligned with national targets such as achieving net-zero by 2050. The city‘s approach was primarily technocratic, focused on measures like improving building efficiency, expanding public transport, and increasing the share of renewable energy. While important, these policies were framed around technical feasibility and cost-efficiency, with little attention to equity, inclusion, or the uneven social impacts of climate change.The Basel 2030 campaign challenged this narrow framing by placing climate justice at the center of the local agenda. Rather than advocating for a fixed emissions target alone, it introduced a broader political and ethical vision that connected environmental action with fairness, democratic participation, and historical responsibility. This reframing helped build alliances across political and social groups and led to a significant institutional victory: the inclusion of climate justice in the cantonal constitution. Although the specific proposal to commit to net-zero by 2030 was rejected (with the government’s softer counterproposal of net-zero by 2037 being accepted instead) the campaign succeeded in embedding a new framework that continues to shape climate governance in Basel today.
The Struggle for Climate Justice in Basel
MELINDA FECHNER AND MIROSLAVA FEDOTOVA IN CONVERSATION WITH AXEL SCHUBERT
The Basel 2030 initiative began in 2022 as a citizen-led response to the limitations of the city’s existing climate strategy. Until then, Basel, like many Swiss cities, had committed to long-term emission reductions, typically aligned with national targets such as achieving net-zero by 2050. The city‘s approach was primarily technocratic, focused on measures like improving building efficiency, expanding public transport, and increasing the share of renewable energy. While important, these policies were framed around technical feasibility and cost-efficiency, with little attention to equity, inclusion, or the uneven social impacts of climate change.The Basel 2030 campaign challenged this narrow framing by placing climate justice at the center of the local agenda. Rather than advocating for a fixed emissions target alone, it introduced a broader political and ethical vision that connected environmental action with fairness, democratic participation, and historical responsibility. This reframing helped build alliances across political and social groups and led to a significant institutional victory: the inclusion of climate justice in the cantonal constitution. Although the specific proposal to commit to net-zero by 2030 was rejected (with the government’s softer counterproposal of net-zero by 2037 being accepted instead) the campaign succeeded in embedding a new framework that continues to shape climate governance in Basel today.
Climate Justice: Basel in the World is a colloquium at the University of Basel, co-organized in the spring semester 2025 by students from the AG Nachhaltigkeit and Prof. Dr. Janina Grabs. It is supported through funding by Impuls.