Berner Platte – the Blick column: Pioneer Switzerland

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This week we submitted the climate fund initiative. A beautiful and proud act, unique thanks to our direct democracy. Objections continue to arise that Switzerland is beset by a ‘flood of initiatives’; there are calls to increase the number of signatures because digitization makes collection easier.

I see it differently. It is still a big challenge for smaller companies or groups. If there is no money and the return stamped signature cards cannot be sent to all households, all 100,000 signatures must be collected on the street.

On Thursday, we Greens and the SP submitted 130,000 signatures for the climate fund initiative to the Federal Chancellery. The initiative aims to provide urgently needed resources to combat the climate crisis. To strengthen climate protection and especially to produce the energy we need in a renewable way, major investments are needed. And better today than tomorrow.

Climate neutral Switzerland

I hope that we as Switzerland can find a more innovative path again and escape the nagging mood. A few generations before me, the AHV was founded, the ETH was founded, women’s suffrage was finally introduced and the NRLA was founded.

Now we must take the big step towards a climate-neutral Switzerland.

It is often criticized that the pioneering spirit has diminished in Switzerland. Of course, we have made mistakes in the past, we have become too dependent on foreign countries, we have invested too much in fossil fuels – which often come from autocratic states – and we have also sold large, innovative Swiss companies to China in recent decades. But what we cannot simply sweep under the table is the pioneering spirit in, for example, buildings with sun roofs. Last year, 1.5 TWh of solar energy was generated, and already 10 percent of energy production consists of solar energy in the Swiss mix – a decentralized breakthrough achievement.

The necessary innovations must also be stimulated in the future thanks to the climate fund. It can be used to insulate buildings, oil heating systems can be replaced by fossil-free heating systems such as heat pumps and we can continue the solar offensive. But retraining and further training for new job profiles can also be supported by the climate fund.

So many pioneering opportunities we have in Switzerland. Let’s use them.

* Aline Trede is leader of the Green Party in the National Council and an environmental scientist. She writes for us every second Sunday – in rotation with SVP National Councilor Alfred Heer.

Source:Blick