A referendum aimed at blocking a draft law to cut greenhouse gas emissions has been called by Switzerland’s right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) on Thursday.
The law which aims to make Switzerland carbon-neutral by 2050 has seen more than 103,000 signatures collected against it by the SVP, a member of the ruling coalition in Bern.
“(This) law is expensive, mendacious and dangerous. Even though we already have too little power it wants to outlaw heating oil, gas, diesel and petrol as energy sources,” the SVP said in a statement on Thursday.
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No other party has supported SVP’s referendum against the proposed legislation on climate change, which would accelerate CO2 emissions cuts and the roll-out of renewable energy, notably solar energy, backed by 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) of funding.
Prior to the referendum’s activation, Greenpeace Switzerland said it disagreed with the broad base support the climate law is enjoying within parliament as a whole, adding that the climate policies are “short-term and divorced from reality”.
World Wildlife Fund Switzerland said the law mapped out a path to “secure and independent energy provision” for the country.
“The climate crisis and biodiversity are closely linked,” it added in a statement. “…. We are all subject to its impact, which will become ever more devastating unless we act resolutely to halt its progression.”
The SVP argues that imposing further curbs would be counterproductive during Europe’s current energy crisis. The new draft on carbon emissions meanwhile also faces hurdles as it too will require approval in a referendum to become law and is itself a watered-down version of a draft that failed to pass in 2021.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
