Switzerland in 2050: portrait of a climate-neutral country

Switzerland has set itself the goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. But while studies show that Switzerland could achieve energy security without fossil fuels, this will require big changes in behaviour, says an energy transition expert.

Switzerland has committed to becoming climate neutral by 2050 – emitting no more greenhouse gases than natural or technological reservoirs can absorb. In June, a majority of the Swiss voters approved the government’s new climate and innovation law. But many questions remain unanswered.

What will Switzerland look like without – or with minimal – fossil fuels?

Lucerne’s 2226 building points to a possible future for architecture. This pilot project is heated using only the warmth generated by its occupants, equipment, and lighting. It is cooled solely by ventilation panels.

The building is currently unique in Switzerland, but its designers believe it offers many advantages: “its energy consumption is one-third of that of a traditional building equipped with heating and air conditioning systems,” says Thies Böke, the 2226 project director. “We save money while also reducing CO2 emissions.”

This type of construction needs to become more common in the next 30 years in order for the country to reach its net-zero target. But Switzerland also plans to use other technologies, including heat pumps in well-insulated buildings, electric cars, hydrogen trucks, solar panels, wind energy, and carbon-capture technology.

The government asserts that CO2 emissions generated by transport, buildings, and industry can be reduced by 95% using existing technology and renewable energy. The government also believes that other greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced, particularly in agriculture. Any remaining emissions will have to be captured and stored – either by natural carbon sinks like forests and soil or by technologies that remove greenhouse gases from the air or directly at the place of production.

“In any case, this transition is going to happen, whether we want it or not. Oil will run out sooner or later, and Europe has no option other than to bet on renewable energy,” says Marc Muller, an engineer and independent expert specialising in energy transition.

Muller believes that despite Switzerland’s typically slow democratic process, politicians will collaborate and work quickly to find solutions – because the cost of inaction is significantly higher than the cost of action. “Switzerland has already proven several times in the past that it knows how to act rapidly when under pressure,” he says. This will be a decisive factor in the success of the transition. “The sooner we regain control of our energy production, the less we’ll be at risk of suffering the potentially devastating consequences of energy scarcity at the global level.”

Yes, according to studies. The first study, published on May 24 by an expert group from the Energy Science Center at the Swiss federal technology institute ETH Zurich, concluded that a secure energy supply is achievable in Switzerland both technically and financially.

The report claimed that electrifying the transportation and heating sectors will lower the country’s overall energy usage. This transition will, however, increase annual demand for electricity from 60 terawatt-hours (TWh) currently to 80-100 TWh in 2050. The ETH Zurich researchers believe this increase can be met by boosting the amount of renewable energy produced domestically and by trading clean energy with other European countries.

The second study, published on May 30 by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Western Switzerland (HES-SO), goes a step further. It estimates that Switzerland could achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 without having to import electricity. The key: producing a massive amount of solar energy during the summer and storing part of it – using dams as giant “batteries” – for use during the winter.

In this scenario, about 60% of the country’s roofs would need to be covered with solar panels. Wind-power generation would also have to increase during the winter. According to the researchers, this energy system would not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also cost less. It would no longer be necessary to pay for imported oil, gas, or electricity, which in the long term would generate savings to the order of 30%.

Will the Swiss need to change their habits to achieve climate neutrality?

Without a doubt. “It isn’t always highlighted in the reports, but we can’t achieve these goals without strict energy-saving measures,” Muller says. At the moment, for example, there is no viable alternative for decarbonising the aviation sector. “It would take 30% of the electricity produced worldwide to permit all of the planes to fly cleanly,” Muller explained. “It’s obscene, considering that only 1% of the global population uses this form of transportation regularly.”

Muller believes that Switzerland will also need to repatriate some amount of industrial production and diminish imports drastically from Asia and elsewhere. Otherwise it runs the risk of making other countries pay the cost of the transition. “But we don’t really like to admit this in a country that has built its prosperity on free trade and open markets,” Muller says.

It will also be necessary to persuade the substantial minority of citizens who voted “no” in June. “Until now, we’ve made ecological action as difficult as possible,” said Muller. He calls for reducing constraints that discourage a decarbonised way of life. “For example, you have to fill out many forms in order to change your heating system, whereas you can fly 50 times a year without any obstacles. This has to change,” he says.

Are other countries also aiming for climate neutrality?

According to Net Zero Tracker, 148 of the 198 countries which are party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have declared that they want to achieve climate neutrality. Together they represent 88% of global emissions and 85% of the world’s population. Most of them want to reach the goal by 2050. But some countries are more ambitious: Finland hopes to achieve net-zero emissions by 2035, and Germany by 2045. China and Russia, two of the world’s largest emitters, are aiming for 2060.

In 2019, the United Kingdom was the first major industrialised country to turn its net-zero target into law. In total, including the Swiss vote on in June, 26 countries have now legislated for climate neutrality, including France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Japan, and South Korea.

“No country has figured out THE ideal solution, but the Nordic countries are a source of inspiration,” Muller says. “I admire Denmark, for example, where two-thirds of the wind farms are owned by citizens. The ecological transition therefore goes hand in hand with a democratisation of the energy infrastructure.”

Portrait of a climate-neutral Switzerland

Do Climate Change Conferences still make sense?

The world is moving further away from achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, as a report by the UN Environment Programme concludes. But there is also a shimmer of hope.

Sandro Bucher

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Global emissions would need to decrease rapidly in order for global warming to be limited to under 2 degrees, if possible to 1.5 degrees, as agreed in Paris in 2015. However, the gap between what would be necessary to achieve these climate goals and the actual emissions has continued to grow. This is shown by the new Emissions Gap Report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Between 2021 and 2022, global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.2 percent - to a new record of 57.4 gigatons, or 57.4 billion tons.

While emissions are decreasing in many industrialised countries, including Switzerland, this unfortunate record has been achieved because populous countries such as India and especially China are emitting significantly more CO₂ since after the pandemic.

The authors of the report have added up the promises and goals of the countries. Measures have already been taken worldwide and more are planned. They estimate that with these measures, earth will warm up by between 2.5 and 3 degrees by the end of the century. This is significantly more than was agreed in Paris in 2015. After all, the forecasts at that time were still for a warming of almost 4 degrees Celsius.   

The problem: The measures taken by the countries so far are simply not enough. Many countries are indeed expanding renewable energy production, especially from solar and wind power. At the same time, they continue to rely on coal, oil, and gas.   

Claire Micallef

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Even though more and more electric vehicles are being put on the roads, climate-damaging air traffic has practically returned to pre-pandemic levels. In addition, uneven developments can be seen within the countries. While the wealthy population has further increased their CO₂ emissions even in industrialised countries, these emissions are decreasing on average.   

Historically, industrialised countries still bear a great deal of responsibility for climate change. The UNEP calls on these countries to be more ambitious and to support the countries of the Global South. The aim is to help more people find a way out of poverty without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.   

For example, green energy is not only climate-friendly: the expansion of solar and wind energy is also cheaper than that of fossil power plants. In addition, it creates more jobs and is less harmful to health, according to the latest report.

The UNEP report assumes that global emissions will peak before 2030 and then decline. This is mainly due to the fact that China is advancing the expansion of solar and wind power plants much faster than previously assumed. 

If emissions were indeed to start declining soon, it would not be a sign of all-clear. However, it would be proof that measures in the fight against climate change are possible and have an effect.




At the climate conference in Dubai, which started on November 30, the states are called upon to take exactly such ambitious measures. This is the only way they could seize what is probably the very last chance and keep the 1.5 degree target alive.   

Aims of the Paris Agreement

Are business representatives hijacking climate efforts?

Many of the 100,000 participants represent economy. This is not necessarily good for progress in the fight against climate change.

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Almost 100,000 women and men from almost 200 countries have traveled to COP28 in Dubai - from advisor to youth speakers. Although there are no exact figures, it is obvious that there are more participants from the private sector than ever before.

In Dubai, a variety of companies are meeting, which have something to do with climate protection, but increasingly also more broadly with environmental protection. The Swiss financial sector is also prominently represented.

The climate conference has taken on the character of a second World Economic Forum, a WEF, says the State Secretary for International Finance, Daniela Stoffel.

Stoffel says that we are faced with the decision of whether we also want to assess climate and environmental protection in economic terms. After all, measures must be taken in the end to be able to "preserve a kind of nature that is necessary from an economic point of view - and that secures us a common future on the planet".

Accordingly, financial products that yield profit when the environment is protected have become a big topic in the industry. They are negotiated, discussed, and sold in Dubai.

In addition to the representative of the Swiss financial market, the project manager from Kenya is also looking for financiers for his reforestation project. Jonathan Muriuku from Restore Africa is confident that he will find them here. "There was a lot of interest in our project at a forum with investors yesterday", he says.

The oil lobby wants to delay negotiations

Many of the business representatives are not directly involved in the UN climate negotiations at COP28. Nevertheless, they flew to Dubai.

The representatives of the fossil fuel lobby do not aim for ambitious climate protection, but rather a delay in negotiations.

Does this advance climate protection? Yes and no, says Stefan Salzmann. He is responsible for energy and climate policy at the aid organisation Fastenaktion and is an observer in Dubai

"If economic interests run counter to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, it is critical for climate protection”, he says. Salzmann in particular notes that the fossil fuel lobby is strongly represented in Dubai. "They do not aim for ambitious climate protection, but rather a delay in negotiations. That’s not good."

Important promoters for renewable energies

On the other hand, it is good that many companies want to get involved in the expansion of renewable energies, for example. At COP28, they put pressure on the states to make a clear commitment to more climate protection. However, the local population should not be forgotten, emphasises the representative of the aid organisation

It seems clear: The mere presence of so many representatives of the private sector shows that climate policy now affects and interests all areas of society and the economy. This was very different just a few years ago.

Global economy and COP28

Burying CO2: Switzerland cooperates with Iceland

First encouraging results of a study led by ETH Zurich on technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere have been published.

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Capturing carbon dioxide and returning it to the depths of the earth, where it ultimately comes from. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, as stipulated by the CO2 Act, it is not enough to promote renewable energies; we must also focus on so-called negative emission technologies. ETH Zurich has conducted a feasibility study: "We have investigated how these technologies can be implemented on a large scale, which is exactly in line with Switzerland's climate strategy", explains ETH professor Marco Mazzotti, who has been coordinating the research commissioned by the federal government with the industry for the past two years.

To assess the potential of these new methods, says the scientist, “we examined the use and permanent storage of CO2 in demolition concrete, which can then be recycled, or the underground storage of carbon dioxide in suitable geological formations. We have worked with Iceland because there is a basalt there that is very reactive with CO2. When it is injected dissolved in water, it reacts quickly, mineralises and becomes a kind of stone.”   

Such storage technologies have proven to be economically sustainable and have a positive climate balance. “The system for capturing, transporting, and storing CO2 from Switzerland to Iceland naturally involves elements that require energy and cause indirect CO2 emissions. These emissions must be lower than what we transport and store. The balance resulted in an efficiency of 80%, which is the percentage of CO2 actually removed from the atmosphere.”

Switzerland was the first country this year to export CO2 for storage abroad. The new technologies are promising, but this is just the beginning, says Professor Mazzotti: “As a researcher, it is my job to bring what we have learned in research into application as quickly as possible. We support the companies that want to use these technologies on a larger scale.”

It is also a political challenge. Like other states, Switzerland will have to develop legal frameworks for the transport and storage of CO2. So there is still much to do. The work of the ETH researchers also continues: In a next step, they want to investigate the Swiss subsoil to see if it offers potential for the storage of carbon dioxide.

Burying CO2

These five tipping points could radically change our climate

In a current report, researchers present looming scenarios that could radically change the climate. But it doesn’t have to be as negative as it sounds.

Since the 2000s, climate researchers have been discussing tipping points in the Earth system. If these tip, according to the concept, this change would be irreversible. The researchers included, for example, the very strong deforestation of the Amazon rainforest or the melting of the ice sheets at the North and South poles. A new report, the “Global Tipping Points Report”, now summarises the current state of research.   

More than 200 researchers from over 26 countries contributed to the report. It was presented at COP28 in Dubai.




A tipping point can be compared to the image of a chair on the edge of a cliff. Imagine sitting on a chair at the edge of a high cliff, with your back to the abyss. You teeter and suddenly fall backwards into the depths. A gruesome idea - but one that corresponds to the so-called tipping points in the analogy. If we reach a certain air or sea temperature or ice melt with our behaviour (the teetering), we trigger a tipping point. In other words, according to the researchers, there is no going back.




The main author of the report and Professor of Climate Change, Tim Lenton, adds: “Tipping points can trigger devastating domino effects, including the loss of entire ecosystems and the ability to grow important crops, with social impacts such as mass migration, political instability, and financial collapse.”

But: According to the researchers, there are also many positive tipping points that can counteract climate change. For example, if electric vehicles were to become the dominant form of transport, batteries would become cheaper, which in turn could allow for more storage capacity for the same price. This, in turn, would favor the tipping point for renewable energy.




"Point of no return"

Find out where you stand

How can "degrowth" help combat climate change?

To meet the challenge of climate change, economic researcher Timothée Parrique advocates for degrowth and the transition to a post-capitalist economy.   

The year 2023 is set to be the hottest year since records began, according to estimates by United Nations climate experts. A preliminary report was presented by the World Meteorological Organisation at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai. According to this, the global average temperature was already around 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of October. The goal set in the Paris Agreement of 2015 to limit the global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees seems increasingly illusory for the time being.

To slow down climate change, some economists advocate the degrowth concept. French economist Timothée Parrique is one of them. In the RTS programme Géopolitis, he says: “We find that a growing economy, i.e., when we produce and consume more, leads to an increase of the so-called ecological footprint. We can talk about greenhouse gases, but also about the use of metals and minerals, water extraction, land use, and of course the impact of local and global environmental pollution as well as the impact on biodiversity. So we have to make the decision to slow down, to tell ourselves that our current pace is unsustainable."   

The most desirable natural resource is the one we don’t have to use.

For Timothée Parrique, humanity is living on “ecological credit” and needs to take measures to reduce global consumption and production. The researcher from Lund University in Sweden published a book on the topic of degrowth in 2022. He believes that efficiency gains through technological progress and innovation can reduce the impacts of economic activities on the planet, but these solutions are not enough. He also advocates for “avoidance" strategies and emphasizes that “the most desirable natural resource is the one we don’t have to use”. Timothée Parrique, who refers to his model as post-growth or post-capitalism, believes it is necessary to "invent a different system".   

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His position does not only meet with approval in the professional world dealing with environmental and climate issues. Many economists believe that solutions to these challenges already exist. Kenza Benhima, Professor of Economics at the University of Lausanne and Director of the CREA Institute, cites the carbon tax as an example, which makes products with high CO2 emissions more expensive and at the same time provides tax revenues that governments can redistribute to help citizens cope with these changes. She also cites the example of emission certificates. These solutions work, she says, but they need to be much more widely spread.

"Europe has just introduced the ETS [the European Union Emissions Trading System], which has reduced emissions quite effectively. The UK, for example, has made a complete transition from coal to gas. This is thanks to the carbon tax, which makes coal too expensive and unprofitable. So we see examples where it works, we just need to go much further," says Kenza Benhima. In the UK, per capita CO2 emissions have fallen as the economy has continued to grow, according to an analysis by Our World in Data. "It's not going to be enough to just transform, imposing a little tax here and there, doing a little more recycling. We really need a big change", replies Timothée Parrique.

Kenza Benhima agrees with degrowth advocates that a strong hand policy is needed, but thinks differently about the measures to be implemented: "Just as some make the foolish bet that technology will save us, degrowthists make the foolish bet that human nature will change us and the revolution will bring us the desired outcome. My vision is rather that even if we have very ambitious goals in terms of ecological transition, we must still try to achieve it with the least possible impact on the economy. For me, that is the meaning of green growth", she explains.

In order to accelerate the transition, consumers and voters must be mobilised, says Kenza Benhima: "We have to make sacrifices for people we don't know, people who live in other countries, people who have not yet been born. And that is the real challenge." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that climate change will kill 250,000 people a year by 2050, more than half of them in Africa.

We can set very ambitious targets for ecological change, but still try to do so while minimising the impact on the economy.

For Timothée Parrique, a new balance must be found. "The figures on ecological inequality are clear. The emissions of the richest 1% of the world's population correspond to the same amount as the emissions of the poorest 66%. It is therefore clear that the wealthiest regions will have to decline in terms of CO2 emissions in the future. If we really want to give the countries of the South room for manoeuvre in order to achieve the most sustainable development possible, we need to free up the resources that are currently monopolised by the countries of the North", says the researcher.

According to the Global Carbon Project, China emitted the most CO2 in 2022, ahead of the US and India. However, the largest per capita emitters are Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, which hosted the last COP, and Bahrain.

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COP28 in Dubai has set a record in terms of the number of lobbyists and private companies. But efforts still need to be synchronised at a global level.

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