Report from Pari
Delegates speak, water rises
The Indonesian island of Pari is on the front line of climate change. In the last two years, the situation has only got worse.
The 29th UN Climate Change Conference is currently taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan. A central theme is ‘loss and damage’. Hardly anyone knows what this means in practice better than Asmania, Arif, Bobby and Edi. For years, they have been witnessing the way climate change and its consequences have been increasingly restricting life on their home island of Pari in Indonesia. For the most part, they have been powerless to stop it, as their own carbon footprint is negligible, and they are not invited to world climate conferences – even though they are at the ‘front line’ of climate change.
This changed somewhat in February 2023, when they took legal action in Switzerland against one of the world’s largest CO2 emitters: the Swiss company Holcim, formerly the world’s largest cement producer. With support from an awareness campaign by the three NGOs WALHI, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and HEKS/EPER, they are seeking, among other things, justice for the damage that climate change has already caused in their lives. According to the plaintiffs, Holcim is partly responsible for these consequences due to its excessive greenhouse gas emissions. At Holcim’s request, the Zug Cantonal Court is currently dealing with procedural issues.
However, time does not stand still, and since the beginning of this legal dispute, the situation on the island and the living conditions of the four plaintiffs have continued to deteriorate. Since 2020, there have been about seven to eight tidal floods a year. In 2024, there were two particularly high tidal floods. Climate change is affecting Pari’s infrastructure, well-being, water and food security, economy and culture.
In October 2024, ECCHR employees visited Pari and were shown the developments.