Party officials of Switzerland’s right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) have said that a referendum aimed at blocking a draft law to cut greenhouse gas emissions will be called within a few days.
A member of the ruling coalition in Bern, the SVP is campaigning against the law to make Switzerland carbon-neutral by 2050 but has so far failed to attract backing from other parties.
If it scaled through, the new legislation would lead to an acceleration in cutting down CO2 emissions and the rollout of renewables, notably solar energy, which will be backed by funding of up to 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion).
It would be counterproductive to impose further reductions in the face of the current energy crisis triggered across Europe after Moscow cut off most gas deliveries in response to Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the SVP argues.
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In Switzerland, proposed referendums require the support of 50,000 signatures to be activated but the SVP energy spokesperson Monika Rueegger in a webcast interview on Sunday said more than 50,000 thousand people had signed up and that the party would announce the referendum at a later date.
A party spokesperson declined to confirm how many signatures had been gathered and said it planned to call the referendum as scheduled on Jan. 19, the deadline for acceptances.
The SVP, which also favours tighter curbs on immigration, is the biggest group in Switzerland’s 200-member federal parliament, but no other party has supported its referendum,
However, the new draft anti-CO2 law also faces hurdles.
It too will require approval in a referendum to become law and is a watered-down version of a draft that failed to pass in 2021.
The story was adapted from Reuters.
