The two organizations terre des hommes schweiz in Basel and Terre des Hommes Suisse in Geneva have pooled their know-how and created a joint climate and environmental roadmap. The goal is to implement climate-friendly measures in line with the Paris Agreement. With the roadmap, the Climate Roadmap, the Alliance commits to integrating the reduction of its environmental footprint into all key work processes. It does this because of its accountability to beneficiaries and its credibility as a civil society actor working for children's and young people's rights and for climate justice.
Franziska Lauper, Managing Director terre des hommes switzerland, says: "Young people in our projects have already been using sustainable farming methods for decades. They are committed to agroecology and contribute to low-emission agriculture as part of a small-scale farming approach. As a development organization working for climate justice, it is clear that first and foremost we must do our part and significantly reduce our ecological footprint. Anything less would be untrustworthy."
More than one and a half million children under the age of five now lose their lives each year to preventable environmental pressures, and millions more suffer from their negative impacts. A coherent commitment to the well-being of children and youth requires respecting the critical right of future generations to a healthy and sustainable environment. A more equitable development in terms of resource sharing is therefore the only collectively viable way to meet the present and future needs of humanity. With the Climate Roadmap, the terre des hommes schweiz / Terre des Hommes Suisse alliance commits itself to follow this path together in the future.
Christophe Roduit, Secretary General Terre des Hommes Suisse, emphasizes: "Protecting our environment is a sine qua non for respecting all children's rights. For this reason, Terre des Hommes Suisse is committed in all its actions to take the necessary measures to reduce its CO₂ footprint by 50 percent by 2030. We are therefore committed to following this roadmap and are proud to be leading the way in this area. Children, defending their rights and building their future are at the heart of everything we do. This future also depends on the state of the planet we leave them!"
About us
The Climate Roadmap was developed in collaboration with the Climate Action Accelerator. It is the result of several months of joint work by both teams in Switzerland and in the program countries.
terre des hommes schweiz based in Basel, has been strengthening young people in Africa, Latin America and Switzerland for more than 60 years. Together with them, we fight poverty, violence and discrimination and advocate for the rights of children and young people and just North-South relations. Our core competence lies in participatory and solution-oriented work with young people.
Terre des Hommes Suisse is an independent and non-profit recognized non-governmental organization based in Geneva. For more than 60 years, it has been working for children and for sustainable and solidarity-based development through three priority areas: access to quality education adapted to the child's context, protection of children from all forms of violence, and promotion of children's participation in decisions that affect them. The organization is present in 10 countries and 4 continents, where it works in partnership with more than 60 recognized local partners committed to defending children's rights.
The Climate Action Accelerator is a non-profit association dedicated to engaging organizations to define their own climate solutions to reduce global warming to less than two degrees Celsius and to counteract climate change.
Media contacts:
Terre des Hommes Suisse: Emmanuelle Birraux, Responsable communication, Tél. +41 22 727 26 72, e.birraux@terredeshommessuisse.ch
Terre des hommes switzerland: Valerie Wendenburg, Media and Communication, Tel. +41 61 335 91 51, valerie.wendenburg@terredeshommes.ch
