The Council of States voted 31-11 to adopt a statement criticising the European Court of Human Rights ruling, which made Switzerland the first country ever to be condemned by an international tribunal for not going far enough in tackling the issue.

Switzerland’s lower house will decide on a similar motion next week, which could leave the government in a tricky position if parliament as a whole rejects the ECHR verdict.

In April, the ECHR found that the Swiss state had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the “right to respect for private and family life”.

The case was brought by the Swiss association Elders for Climate Protection, a group of 2,500 women aged 73 on average.

The organisation wants climate protection to be recognised as a human right and says the Swiss authorities’ failure to mitigate the effects of climate change is having a negative impact on their lives and health.

‘Defend Swiss interests’ call 

The motion passed Wednesday “notes with concern” the ruling, saying the court had exceeded the limits of interpreting the law, thereby exposing “itself to the criticism of exercising inappropriate and unacceptable judicial activism”.

It called on the court to “respect the democratic processes” of member states.

The motion invited the Swiss government to engage with the Council of Europe “to defend the interests of Switzerland”.

It urged Bern to explain that Swiss voters had in a referendum last year approved a law setting a target to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and that the country “has so far respected its international climate commitments”, the text said.

“Switzerland therefore sees no reason to take further action on the court’s judgement,” it said. The Elders for Climate Protection said the declaration “changes nothing”.

“States must all contribute to limiting the global rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Our country is far from being on the right track,” the group’s co-president Anne Mahrer said in a statement.

“Parliamentarians are seeking to divert attention from their own failure to put in place effective measures to protect us from global warming’s alarming impacts on health and life,” she said, urging them to “respect the law and the ECHR”.

The parliamentary motion passed just days before a referendum on Sunday brought by groups opposed to the climate bill approved last year.

Some environmental groups, with the backing of the hard-right Swiss People’s Party, pushed for the vote, warning that the ambition to rapidly scale up wind and solar power production could threaten Switzerland’s pristine Alpine landscapes.

However, in a recent opinion poll, 73 percent of voters said they backed the law.