Climate change activists block road to Alpine tunnel

Climate change activists brought holiday traffic to a halt in Switzerland yesterday when they blocked the main route beneath the Alps to demand urgent action against global warming.
Protesters from the group Renovate Switzerland glued themselves to the motorway surface around the northern entrance to the Gotthard Tunnel, the group said.
Good Friday, the first day of the Easter holiday long weekend, is typically one of the tunnel’s busiest days.
The 17km (10 mile) tunnel is one of the main routes connecting northern Switzerland to Italy, and is a bottleneck for travellers heading from northern Europe southwards.
Police were called to the scene and eventually removed the seven protesters, who held a banner saying “renovate”, after their action began just after 10am.
Some motorists angrily swiped at their banners.
“Renovate Switzerland is back on the streets,” the group said via Twitter. “This is an appeal to our fellow citizens. Let’s demand together that the Swiss government finally declares a climate emergency.”
The group said it wanted the government to take climate change seriously and renovate the country’s buildings by 2035.
Switzerland is warming at more than twice the global rate and its glaciers are melting fast.
In response, the government wants to invest 4.1bn Swiss francs ($4.54bn) on renovating buildings, modernising the transport infrastructure and other measures to halve greenhouse emissions by 2030 from 1990 levels.
Karuna Babajee, a 19-year-old student, said she was scared to take part in the protest but felt compelled to act.
“I’m doing it because I’m terrified and angry that my generation is being sentenced to death,” she said.
Police from the Swiss canton of Uri were called to the scene removed the protesters after 30 minutes.
The group, all aged between 19-60, were arrested.
Police told Reuters that the road had been cleared and traffic had now resumed under the tunnel after the protest, although there were tailbacks of 17km.
Opened in 1980, the road tunnel has one lane in each direction and typically sees traffic jams around the Easter and summer holidays.
The Gotthard Pass has been a key trade route across the Alps since the Middle Ages.
It remains a key transport link between northern and southern Europe with one road and two rail tunnels under the pass.
All three were the longest of their kind in the world when they opened.