The Swiss people will vote on February 9 on a single subject: the initiative launched in 2021 by the Young Greens concerning Switzerland’s environmental responsibility. If the people agree to include this text in the Constitution, Switzerland will have to ensure, within ten years, that its economy and its way of life do not consume more resources than the planet can replenish.
This requirement is based on the concept of “planetary boundaries” established in 2009 by a group of international researchers. There are nine, which must ensure the stability of our biosphere: climate change, biodiversity, land use, fresh water use, disruption of the biochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosols, ozone depletion and chemical pollution.
According to a study published by Greenpeace in 2023, Switzerland has largely exceeded the limits in four of these areas: biodiversity, climate change (CO2), water consumption and nitrogen loss. In our country, CO emissions2 would be 19 times higher than the limit…
Agnes Jezler, expert in socio-economic change at Greenpeace Switzerland then observed: “The way we live and manage our economy is depriving us of a future – and this is happening more and more quickly. This is not compatible with the long-term survival of humanity.” The Greens’ initiative is therefore part of a very specific scientific context. On the other hand, it does not give concrete examples of measures to take. It specifies that the Confederation and the cantons will have to take into account in their decision their “social acceptability, in Switzerland and abroad”.
In Bern, only the left and environmentalists supported this text. The bourgeois majority in Parliament and the Federal Council opposed it. While recognizing “that we must protect natural resources”, the majority considers that the approach defended by the initiative goes too far, “because it would be accompanied by new prohibitions and prescriptions for the economy and the population”.
The head of the Department of the Environment, Albert Rösti, believes that the concept of sustainability is based on three pillars: ecology, social and economic. For him, young ecologists neglect the third. “We would find ourselves having to reduce our consumption, which could be divided almost by three. This is not sustainable for people and families. The measures must be bearable for the population.”
Albert Rösti believes that Switzerland is moving at its own pace on the right track with the recently accepted laws for climate, innovation and electricity supply. A new version of the CO law2 is also in the works. Finally, the ten-year deadline provided for by the initiative seems very short to him: “Given the radical decisions that would have to be taken, this timetable is simply not realistic for Switzerland.”
However, the federal councilor does not have too much to worry about. During the first Tamedia 20 minutes survey, two out of three people refused the text. It seems unlikely between now and February 9 to find a majority of Swiss ready to take the leap of degrowth to respect planetary limits.
Art. 94a Limits to the economy
1 Nature and its capacity for renewal constitute the limits placed on the national economy. Economic activities can only use resources and emit pollutants to the extent that the natural bases of life are preserved.
2 The Confederation and the cantons ensure compliance with this principle by taking into particular account the social acceptability, in Switzerland and abroad, of the measures they adopt.
13. Transitional provision ad art. 94a (Limits placed on the economy)
1 The Confederation and the cantons ensure that, no later than 10 years after acceptance of art. 94a by the people and the cantons, the environmental impact resulting from consumption in Switzerland no longer exceeds planetary limits, relative to the population of Switzerland.
2 This provision applies in particular to climate change, the loss of biological diversity, water consumption, land use and inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus.
