Swiss Climate Rambles

What this blog is about.

Until recently you could admire the snow-capped Glarner Alps from the banks of Lake Zurich, where I grew up and have lived most of my life, all year round. Now the snow is gone in summer and you’re looking at a range of gray rock faces.

In just four decades, Swiss glaciers have shrunk by 40%. The majestic Morteratsch glacier has retreated two kilometers since I first visited it as a kid, and about 500 smaller glaciers have vanished altogether. Where we used to watch out for snow-covered crevasses on our hikes, our kids are now walking across barren moonscapes.

Average temperatures in Switzerland have increased by 2.8°C since pre-industrial times. As a consequence we have experienced more frequent deadly heatwaves and unprecedented flashfloods, hail storms and landslides.

At 4 tons per capita, the Swiss CO2 emissions just about reflect the global average. Since Switzerland mainly generates nuclear and hydropower, its emissions are lower than those of most other industrialized countries, but too high for a 1.5°C aligned pathway. More importantly, domestic emissions don’t show the full picture. Switzerland hosts leading fossil fuel financiers like UBS, coal mine developer Glencore, large oil and gas insurers like Chubb, and leading oil traders like Vitol and Trafigura. The Swiss Climate Alliance estimates that global emissions financed by Switzerland are 20 times as high as the country’s domestic emissions.

Switzerland is one of the world’s richest countries and endowed with a magnificent natural heritage. With strong popular support, it has built a world-class public transport infrastructure and adopted some decent environmental laws. The country has leading climate researchers and a lively civil society, with great NGOs, networks and movements such as the Climate Alliance, Greenpeace, WWF, Campax, Verein Klimaschutz Schweiz, and the Breakfree Collective.

Switzerland, in other words, is ideally placed to play a leading role in the shift away from fossil fuels and the support for a just global transition. And yet, Swiss climate policies are timid, narrow-minded and often cynical. Even after Swiss voters approved a national climate protection law with a large majority in 2023, the Swiss government is slow-walking its implementation and plans to take two full years to draft the respective regulations.

After the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of more than 2,000 older women (the “KlimaSeniorinnen“) in April 2024 and found that the Swiss government had insufficiently protected them from the impacts of climate change, the government refused to consider any additional measures. More recently, the government decided not to prepare binding regulations against greenwashing by Swiss financial institutions, reversing its earlier position on the issue.

The conclusions which Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Avenir Suisse think-tank, the voices of the Swiss bourgeoisie and business sector, have drawn from deadly landslides in the Mesocco and other valleys in June are telling. In a recent feature story, they argue that Switzerland should consider giving up certain Alpine valleys under the onslaught of climate change – without as much as acknowledging that the country should strengthen its climate action in response to growing climate disasters.

Swimming in the sparkling rivers and lakes of my home country, hiking its beautiful valleys and ridges, engaging in its active social movements, I love Switzerland. But I despair about the lost opportunities for bold, smart climate action which the narrow-mindedness of the Swiss government and the cynicism of its corporate elite continue to bring about.

In this new blog, I will call out Swiss climate villains, highlight positive examples of Swiss climate action, and amplify the voices of Swiss climate campaigners. I don’t aim to be comprehensive or post frequently, and won’t take the place of the excellent groups and movements which I mentioned before. I am no longer responsible for any specific campaigns but will draw on my 40-years history as an activist, my international experience and my passion for climate action.

I hope you will join me on my Swiss Climate Rambles so we can explore some of the peaks and abysses of Swiss climate policies together.

Thanks for joining me on my Swiss Climate Rambles! Subscribe for free to receive new rambles as I post them.