From a sinking Pari Island in Indonesia to a melting glacier in Switzerland: A call for climate justice

This blog was jointly written by Agus Dwi Hastutik and Lilli Poser from WALHI / Friends of the Earth Indonesia, with input from Sam Cossar from Friends of the Earth International. An extended version can be found here.

For Asmania and Arif Pujianto the first chill of early Swiss September didn’t dampen the heat of their courage inside the courtroom. They had travelled all the way from Pari Island, a tiny island in northern Jakarta, Indonesia to Zug, Switzerland to challenge a Swiss-based giant cement producer, Holcim, at the Cantonal Court. On September 3rd 2025, they had their first hearing in the climate lawsuit brought by the islanders. 

“I’ve travelled a long way and left my children at home to be here. I am here because my family and I feel the direct impacts and threats of climate change every day. I am worried about the future of my children. Where will we go if our only island sinks?” Asmania remarks, driven by their purpose in calling for climate justice for their island and community. 

The Pari island community, whose livelihoods depend on fishing and tourism, has suffered the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. They are confronted with rising sea levels, recurring tidal floods and increasing water temperatures. With rising sea levels, about 11 per cent of Pari Island is already submerged. These events have destroyed homes, impacted tourism, decreased fish stocks, and caused salinisation of groundwater. Parents are unable to send their kids to school, struggle to put food on the table and worry about where their families will live tomorrow.

Asmania and Arif, together with Mustaghfirin (Bobby) and Edi, their fellow fisherfolk, are taking the cement company to court for its role in the climate crisis. This groundbreaking lawsuit is only the second where Global South plaintiffs are suing a carbon major based in the Global North for its contribution to climate change (following the case of a Peruvian farmer suing the German utility RWE in Germany).

Since 1950, Holcim has played a key role in causing  climate change, emitting more than 7 billion tonnes of CO₂, contributing to rising seas that threaten to overwhelm Pari Island. The plaintiffs are demanding that Holcim reduce its emissions by 69 per cent by 2040 and contribute to adaptation measures on Pari Island, as well as paying for the irreversible loss and damage to the island.

The case illustrates that climate justice goes beyond reducing emissions—it involves providing remedies for those affected and supporting adaptation and loss and damage.

“Every tonne of CO₂ reduced is invaluable to us, and every amount of funding that helps us adapt and repair the damage is immensely meaningful for us and our future,” Asmania added.

Forging global solidarity and connection: Pari Island and beyond

There is a clear connection between the melting glaciers the plaintiffs visited in Switzerland ahead of the first hearing and the sinking of small islands like Pari Island. Both are the result of climate change, with local communities on the frontlines of the crisis facing devastating impacts. 

But these communities are not passive – they are rising up to challenge big polluters and to demand justice.  Art is one form of that resistance.

The new mural on Pari Island, created by artist Tohjaya Tono of the Artivists Collective in collaboration with local youth and supported by HEKS, WALHI / FoE Indonesia and Friends of the Earth International, expresses the community’s reality. Its message, “Jangan Tunggu Kami Tenggelam”  (Don’t Let Pari Island Sink), calls on all who see it to take notice of the island’s plight. As well as the Pari Island mural, Friends of the Earth member groups in Switzerland, England, the Netherlands, India, Japan, Togo, Nepal, Australia and Hungary pasted up smaller versions of the mural as acts of solidarity.

Action fosters hope and creates change. Doing right and being the change we want to see enables others to follow, and empowers us to oppose systems of exploitation and oppression.
Holcim and other big polluting corporations hope that we will feel powerless in the face of the climate crisis. But the Pari Island lawsuit and creative activism show our power, solidarity and resistance. We will learn whether Swiss courts are willing to hear this groundbreaking case soon, but regardless, we will continue the fight to bring corporations to justice for their climate crimes.

In the next step to end corporate impunity, Friends of the Earth International and member groups will be attending the 11th session for a UN Binding Treaty to hold transnational corporations accountable for their human rights violations and give affected communities, like those of Pari Island, access to justice. This struggle for a Binding Treaty is part of the broader fight to dismantle corporate power and reclaim peoples’ sovereignty. It is inseparable from the struggle to achieve system change and real solutions to the climate crisis rooted in equity, justice and ecological sustainability.