Switzerland plummets in climate protection country comparison

Switzerland occupies top positions everywhere: In terms of innovative strength, tax burden, competitiveness, etc. By contrast, our country's ranking in terms of climate protection is rather inglorious: Within a year, Switzerland has lost seven places in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The EU and countries such as Egypt and Malta now rank higher. The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), published by the environmental organization Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network, evaluates the climate protection efforts of 59 countries and the entire European Union. They are all among the largest emitters worldwide. A current ranking is presented each year at the time of the UN Climate Change Conference. This year, Denmark, Sweden and Chile occupy the top ranks 4, 5 and 6. The first three places are not awarded because none of the countries considered is making the necessary efforts to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees.

Greenpeace: Switzerland shirks climate protection

Switzerland's less than stellar performance is grist to the mill of environmental organizations. "Switzerland's crash comes as no surprise to me," says Georg Klingler, a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace Switzerland. "Switzerland is not meeting the commitments it made under the Paris Agreement and is not doing enough to reduce its emissions at home and abroad. Our country is on a path that leads to global warming of 3 degrees. This has serious consequences, as global warming of more than 1.5 degrees already threatens the basic rights of everyone in the country. I hope that this is a wake-up call for the Federal Council to quickly step up efforts to protect the climate in all aspects. The Federal Law on Climate Protection Targets, Innovation and Strengthening Energy Security (indirect counter-proposal to the Glacier Initiative) must allow us to immediately reduce our dependence on fossil fuels."

Politics engages in greenwashing

Greenpeace has little good to say about Switzerland's environmental and climate policy at the moment, as already directly communicated in the run-up to the ongoing COP27 conference in Sharm El-Sheik was. Greenpeace said the Federal Council's logic of whitewashing climate protection efforts in Switzerland with measures implemented abroad was particularly shocking. "Switzerland has already emitted a lot of greenhouse gases in the past. Our country has very high per capita emissions due to our consumption habits, and our financial center continues to invest globally in coal, oil and gas. We must therefore clearly ensure that emissions abroad are reduced. However, these reductions must in no way replace the measures needed in Switzerland. The current policy is nothing more than greenwashing."

So far disappointing COP27

If you put the ranking in relation to the COP27 climate conference, Switzerland's performance fits well into the overall picture. So far, the conference has produced few tangible results. The industrialized nations are also repeatedly proving to be the brakes. According to the UN Emissions Gap Report, global emissions are expected to reach a new record level in 2022, after briefly falling in 2021 due to the pandemic. The Climate Action Tracker report highlights that the increase in LPG consumption due to the energy crisis, exacerbated by the Ukraine war, is likely to have a negative impact on the transition to climate neutrality. In addition, in the absence of more stringent regulations and formal carbon pricing, public and private actors are increasingly relying on offset measures and voluntary carbon trading initiatives. A number of African countries, for example, launched the African Carbon Markets Initiative, which aims to produce 300 million carbon credits worth $6 billion annually by 2030. And with great fanfare, Vella announced the one billionth carbon credit at COP27. These initiatives may show a lot of goodwill, but they distract from actual decarbonization.

Sources: Greenpeace / Voxia Communication