Switzerland’s commitment to reducing its carbon emissions was put to the test this weekend in a heated national vote that questioned the strength of green policies in one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
The climate law, passed in a referendum by a majority of 58% on Sunday, has highlighted the specifically Swiss hurdles Bern faces in adopting new measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Switzerland has one of the cleanest energy balance sheets in Europe and a high level of public concern and awareness of climate change. Yet in the face of an environmental emergency, the country’s political system’s famed strengths — its highly decentralized nature, consensus-based approach, and hostility to changing the law without months, if not years of deliberation — have made it a potential hostage to populist nimbyism and filibustering.
Around 42 percent of Swiss voters voted against the law, although the Green parties gained a lot of popularity in the last general election.
The well-financed “No” campaign showed mountain panoramas destroyed by wind turbines for weeks. If the law passes, critics warn, Switzerland will suffer the same fate as Germany, where an overly ambitious plan to replace gas-fired boilers with renewable energy systems has brought the ruling coalition to the brink.
In 2019, Switzerland’s two green parties secured just over a fifth of the vote. This reflects the urgency with which the public views global warming, experts say. So far, however, the Greens have had trouble pushing through a single significant reform.
“The Climate Law. . . is something of a turning point in Switzerland’s climate policy after two years of uncertainty,” said Lukas Golder, co-director of the opinion research institute gfs.bern.
How big the turnaround will be remains to be seen given the limited nature of the new law. The law commits Switzerland to carbon neutrality by 2050 and creates a subsidy pool of CHF 2 billion to help households switch to fossil fuels and CHF 1.2 billion for companies to invest in more sustainable energy technologies.
“Of course a ‘no’ would do that [have been] “A catastrophe, but even with a ‘yes’ the climate protectionists in Switzerland have a very hard fight ahead of them,” said Golder.
Critics on both sides point out that the law says nothing about where the green electricity consumers are supposed to use should come from.
“Switzerland is resting on its laurels,” warned Christoph Brand, CEO of Switzerland’s largest electricity producer, Axpo.
“When it comes to power generation, we currently look like stars in terms of carbon intensity,” he said, citing the fact that two-thirds of electricity comes from hydroelectric and nuclear power plants. “But by 2050, the country’s electricity consumption will increase from about 62 terawatt hours to 90 terawatt hours. The potential for additional hydropower in Switzerland is practically zero.” . . and our solar and wind capacity is embarrassingly low.
“There’s a tendency in Switzerland to be slow going – to say things have been going well for the last 30 years, so let’s just extrapolate that to the next 30,” he added. “But in this case it doesn’t work.”
Swiss energy suppliers blame the country’s planning laws – a product of decentralized politics – for the lack of progress. In most countries, central government can override local concerns, but Switzerland’s system works in reverse and a single individual or determined group can block or delay almost any project. It took eight years before permission was granted for the construction of five wind turbines on the uninhabited Gotthard Pass.
Bern has introduced a number of workarounds to address some of the issues, such as limiting the number of times an individual or organization can appeal the schedule. Some projects have therefore recently been approved. Construction will begin next year on the Ovra Solara Magriel solar park, an 80,000 square meter facility on a mountainside near Andermatt that will generate 10 MW of electricity.
However, to meet the country’s 2050 targets, 80 square kilometers of solar panels must be built.
The political environment has now polarized. The populist SVP, the country’s largest political party, which has been leading the campaign against the climate law, made the environmental debate one of its key issues, attacking the policy as “un-Swiss” and “anti-freedom” while pointing to the whole European energy crisis as proof that decarbonization was impractical and harmful to ordinary people.
The topic lies on one of the fault lines preferred by the SVP: the urban-rural divide. The party has bolstered support in rural communities, where farmers typically rely on fossil fuels, and oppose outside interference in local decision-making.
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Amid domestic political tensions, major Swiss energy companies have turned their attention to building renewable assets elsewhere in Europe, and many in the industry believe the country will almost inevitably become a net importer of European electricity.
But this option is also problematic. Due to the ongoing diplomatic dispute with the EU over trade relations, Switzerland’s electricity trading agreement with the EU will expire next year. With Bern paralyzed by opposition from right-wing populist and socialist parties to making concessions to Brussels, there is no sign of a replacement.
“That . . . overshadows everything,” said Tobias Schmidt, head of the Energy and Technology Policy Group at ETH Zurich.
“We’re facing a situation where Switzerland may be slowly decoupling from the European electricity system, which is crazy because we’re literally right in the middle of it, for example as the continent’s largest electricity importer and exporter to Austria.”
But few see signs that a rapid consensus will emerge. “The [climate] The debate in Switzerland is not realistic at all. At the moment we want everything,” said Schmidt. “We cannot become more independent of the EU and reject the expansion of renewable energies at the same time.
“I hope we don’t get to the point where power outages keep happening before people realize it.”