Politics National Council begins debate on climate fund initiative
On Wednesday afternoon, the National Council began debating the climate fund initiative of the SP and the Greens. The initiative calls for the federal government to set up a fund for climate protection and the energy transition. The majority of the responsible committee rejects this.
18.06.2025, 15:16
SDA
For them, the requested climate fund is not compatible with the federal government's current climate policy. The National Council's Committee for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (Urek-N) voted no by 15 votes to 8, with one abstention, and the majority of the committee also does not want a counter-proposal.
The resources in the requested fund should flow into the expansion of renewable energies, energy efficiency or the decarbonization of transport, buildings and the economy, for example. The Confederation would have to contribute 0.5 to 1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to the fund each year.
This climate spending should not be subject to the debt brake. The debate is scheduled to last several hours; decisions are not expected to be made until Thursday (tomorrow). More than sixty individual speakers have registered to speak.
Jürg Grossen (GLP/BE) wanted to address the issue with legislative amendments and requested the drafting of an indirect counter-proposal. He was thinking of levies on greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland. These are intended to ensure that Switzerland is climate-neutral by 2050 at the latest. Decisions were initially pending.
