Swiss climate policy – a case of failing to do the impossible?

Phrases like ‘action against climate change’ and ‘climate protection’ are uttered without any clear idea of what, if anything, they might mean. Natural variation at all timescales is an ongoing process, but difficult to measure or predict with any accuracy. Warming has followed the lengthy Little Ice Age, but now some countries – even those with glaciers and ‘snow-capped’ peaks like Switzerland – are being saddled with a legal obligation to attempt to put the brakes on that, by swallowing the argument that a trace gas in the atmosphere is the main source of a supposedly solvable problem of slightly rising temperatures.
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Switzerland, known for pristine countryside and snow-capped [sic] peaks, is facing scrutiny of its environmental policies after becoming the first country faulted by an international court for failing to do enough against climate change, says Phys.org.

The European Court of Human Rights’s ruling last week highlighted a number of failings in Swiss policies, but experts stressed that the wealthy Alpine country was not necessarily doing much worse than its peers.

“The judgment made it really clear that there are critical gaps in the Swiss domestic regulatory framework,” said Tiffanie Chan, a policy analyst at the London School of Economics and Political Science specializing in climate change laws.

“But it’s definitely not a Switzerland-only case,” she told AFP.

Corina Heri, a postdoctoral researcher with the Climate Rights and Remedies Project at Zurich University, agreed.

“This doesn’t mean in any way that … only Switzerland has a problem,” she told AFP.

The court last Tuesday ruled in favor of the Swiss association Elders for Climate Protection—2,500 women above the age of 64—who had complained Swiss authorities’ “failings” on climate protection could “seriously harm” their health.

Elderly women are particularly vulnerable to the effects of heat waves, which due to climate change are becoming more frequent and intensifying, they argued.

The court agreed, ruling that the Swiss state’s climate policy failures violated Article 8 of the European rights convention, which guarantees the “right to respect for private and family life”.
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“Switzerland’s climate policies and action until 2030 need substantial improvements to be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5C,” it says.

To reach its 2030 target, Switzerland would need to slash emissions by at least 35 percent by next year, according to Geraldine Pflieger, head of Geneva University’s science and environment institute.

But for now, Switzerland has cut emissions by less than 20 percent, which was the target it had set, and missed, for 2020.

“Switzerland is not on a favorable trajectory,” Pflieger told AFP.

Full article here.
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Image: The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland [credit: ESA]