Rösti not the only one holding back Confederation hesitates with the implementation of the Climate Protection Act
The federal government was actually supposed to act as a role model and become climate neutral. But there are still problems with implementation: there is resistance from the departments and the Climate Protection Act is still up in the air.
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- The Climate Protection Act was adopted a year ago. Switzerland must become climate-neutral by 2050.
- As part of the law, the federal government is to act as a role model and become climate-neutral by 2040.
- However, implementation of the target is slow - the departments consider the time horizon to be unrealistic.
If everything went according to plan, the Federal Council should be climate-neutral by 2040. This is what the Climate Protection Act, which was approved by the population a year ago, says. Article 10 of the law states that the Federal Administration should act as a role model and "have at least net zero emissions" by 2040.
If only there wasn't the little word "if", because implementation is not quite going according to plan, as the Tages-Anzeiger now reports. According to the newspaper, Federal Councillor Albert Rösti in particular has been criticized by climate activists, but there is even more resistance within the federal administration.
One year after the vote, there are still no concrete plans. The federal government does not know how the target is to be achieved. Climate activists are calling for progress to be made.
An initial draft mainly talks about reducing CO₂, with the intention of offsetting remaining emissions with negative emission technologies. Further clarifications are still needed, says the Federal Administration, but an implementation plan should be drawn up "as soon as possible". Rösti makes it clear: this will probably not happen before mid-2025 at the earliest.
No plan as to how the whole thing is to be financed
The "Tages-Anzeiger" has requested documents from the Federal Administration and gained an overview of those putting the brakes on.
Above all, there is resistance from the financial administration in the department of Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter. They say that everything is still "not mature enough" and that the financing concept is still a big question mark. In the "currently extremely tense" situation in the federal government's finances, there is simply not enough money to implement the measures. The timetable is unrealistic.
The Finance Administration goes one step further and wants the federal government's point to be removed from the Climate Act as a model.
Viola Amherd 's Department of Defense is also opposed. They are convinced that it is not technically possible to achieve the target. "It is utopian to believe that we have a wide range of material that we can acquire. Some are very specific and there are few or no alternatives," the Tages-Anzeiger quotes the Defense Group in the Department of Defense as saying.
"Simply a refusal to work"
Meanwhile, climate activists are demanding action from Federal Councillor Albert Rösti. The Swiss Climate Protection Association has submitted a petition. The question is: "Is Rösti blowing up our climate targets?"
Climate Protection Switzerland is behind the Glacier Initiative, which provided the impetus for the Climate Act. Oliver Daepp is Managing Director of the association and told the Tages-Anzeiger: "Demanding exceptions and further reductions is simply a refusal to work and a mockery of many companies that rightly see this transformation as a great opportunity."
A role model? This shouldn't actually come too late. Daepp told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that 9800 signatures have now been collected for the petition.