- Swiss Voters Approve Climate Law
- Support for Global Minimum Tax Rate
- Mixed Reactions and Political Stances
Sunday, in response to the effects of global warming on their rapidly melting glaciers, the Swiss voted in favor of a new climate law designed to steer their nation toward carbon neutrality by 2050.
Nearly 59 percent of voters supported the new law, which will require Switzerland to reduce its reliance on imported oil and gas while increasing the development and use of sustainable and more domestic alternatives.
In a second referendum, nearly 79 percent of voters supported implementing a global minimum tax rate of 15 percent for multinational corporations, with results from all but one of Switzerland’s 26 cantons. Participation in the referendums was approximately 42%.
Recent opinion polls indicated strong but waning support for the climate measure, amid a populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) campaign centered on electricity shortages and economic collapse.
Supporters insisted the law was necessary to ensure energy security and independence and to combat the ravages of climate change, exemplified by the Swiss Alps’ glaciers losing a third of their ice volume between 2001 and 2022.
Leading Swiss glaciologist Matthias Huss, who has been closely observing the glaciers’ demise, praised the “strong signal” sent by Sunday’s vote in a tweet and stated that he was “very happy that the arguments of climate science were heard”.
Valerie Piller Carrard of the Socialist Party hailed the vote as “an important step for future generations”
Climate-friendly substitutes
Energy has long been a contentious issue in Switzerland, which imports approximately three-quarters of its energy, importing all of its oil and natural gas consumption.
As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland’s access to a significant portion of the foreign energy it consumes has become increasingly uncertain.
Initially, climate activists desired a complete ban on oil and gas utilization in Switzerland by 2050.
In response to the so-called Glacier Initiative, however, the government drew up a counter-proposal that discarded the concept of a ban but included other elements.
The text pledges two billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) over a decade to promote the replacement of gas or oil heating systems with climate-friendly alternatives, as well as to encourage businesses to pursue green innovation.
Almost all of Switzerland’s main parties supported the bill, except the SVP, the country’s largest party, which initiated a referendum against what it termed the “electricity-wasting law”.
It warned that the bill’s objective of attaining climate neutrality in just over a quarter-century would effectively mean a ban on fossil fuels, which, according to the group, would threaten energy access and drive up residential electricity prices.
The SVP expressed disappointment on Sunday, with campaign manager Michael Graber telling 20 Minutes that “the bill to adopt this law will be introduced much later.”
