Environmental policy Baselland terminates air hygiene cooperation with Basel-Stadt
The Basel-Landschaft government has terminated the agreement on the air hygiene office of both Basel cantons, which has been in place since 1985. One of the reasons given by the government is the differing strategies of the two cantons in terms of climate policy, as announced by the Basel Cantonal Department of Building and Environmental Protection on Monday.
01.07.2024, 12:11
01.07.2024, 12:23
SDA
The tasks in the areas of air pollution control, non-ionizing radiation and climate will in future be carried out on the Basel side by the Office for Environmental Protection and Energy, it added. The separation is timed to coincide with the normal retirement of the head of the department.
Integration into the cantonal administrative office will create synergies and increase efficiency. The Government Council also expects a significant simplification of political, administrative and financial management and the corresponding processes.
The Government Council intends to transfer around half of the personnel, financial and material resources of the Air Hygiene Office to the Office for Environmental Protection and Energy. The details of the reorganization will be discussed with the Canton of Basel-Stadt in the coming months.
According to the press release, the background to the decision is the increasingly divergent environmental strategies of the two cantons, for example the different net-zero targets for 2037 in Basel-Stadt and 2050 in Baselland. In addition, there are diverging demands in the area of light emissions.
Regret from Basel-Stadt
At Platform X, Kaspar Sutter (SP), Head of the Department of Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs in Basel-Stadt, expressed his regret at the termination of the agreement. He would have liked to continue the collaboration, he wrote. The joint air hygiene office had worked well and the employees had done valuable and consistently good work.
