A new report does not give Swiss climate policy good numbers. Switzerland lost seven places from the previous year, only finishing 22nd among the countries. This places Switzerland behind Egypt, the Philippines and the EU as a whole for the first time.
For the “Climate Change Performance Index” (CCPI), the German environmental organization Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network annually compare the climate protection performance of 59 countries, which together are responsible for more than 90 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
For example, climate policy, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and measures for renewable energy are evaluated. Switzerland is in the middle bracket in all areas. Switzerland performs particularly poorly in the subcategories of 2030 renewable energy expansion target and per capita energy consumption.
Recent efforts by Swiss politicians, such as the counter-proposal of the Glacier Initiative or measures for more renewable energy sources, were not included in the assessment.
Wake-up call for the Federal Council
“Switzerland’s crash does not surprise me,” said Georg Klingler, climate and energy expert at Greenpeace Switzerland. Switzerland is not living up to the Paris Agreement commitments and is not doing enough to reduce its emissions at home and abroad. “Our country is on the way to 3 degrees global warming.” He hopes this will be a wake-up call for the Federal Council to speed up efforts to protect the climate.
Positions 1 to 3 remain empty in the rankings because no country is actually on a 1.5 degree path, the climate experts said. Denmark, Sweden and Chile occupy the top positions of 4, 5 and 6. The major oil and gas producers Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Iran are at the rear.
Sommaruga travels to conference
The latest CCPI report was presented at the 27th UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, which will last until the end of the week. At the start of the conference, Switzerland was represented by President Ignazio Cassis (61) at the meeting of heads of state or government. Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga (62) is taking part in the talks this week.
Switzerland’s first interim report on the UN Climate Change Conference was mixed. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees on the agenda of the negotiations. The same applies to the goal that all financial flows must be climate-friendly, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (UVEK) told news agency SDA-Keystone on Sunday.
However, they are pleased that aid to the poorest countries in mitigating the damage caused by climate change is finally on the agenda. Concrete decisions need to be made this week. (you)