Switzerland falls twelve places in the climate ranking – rts.ch

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is a ranking published each year by the NGO German Watchthe New Climate Institute and the Climate Action Network. It expresses the performance of countries in different areas.

With its 33rd rank, the Confederation narrowly avoids the “low” overall rating. It achieves a “medium” ranking with regard to greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.

But its rating is weighed down by delays in the development of renewable energies and, above all, by the inadequacy of its climate policy. In this last area, it ranks 48th and receives a “low” rating.

For WWF and Greenpeace, this poor ranking is mainly explained by the reluctance of federal authorities to implement more ambitious measures to mitigate global warming.

Insufficient efforts

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, which sets the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, Switzerland is not making enough effort to reduce carbon emissions by 2030, notes the NGOs. It should double its decarbonization efforts on its territory.

Several climate-related laws and revisions will come into force next year. The Federal Council would have had the possibility of improving the situation through ordinances. But he refused to use this possibility. The idea of ​​directing the financial sector more towards climate protection, for example, remains a dead letter, according to Greenpeace.

“In the development of the climate law and the CO2 law, the Federal Council is content to touch on the minimum necessary and therefore respects neither the popular will nor its international commitments,” notes Patrick Hofstetter, climate expert for the WWF, cited in a press release. “Switzerland’s current climate policy is a disavowal of the objective of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees,” adds Georg Klinger of Greenpeace.

Un podium vide

This ranking, established since 2005, covers 63 countries and the European Union, which together are responsible for more than 90% of greenhouse gas emissions globally.

The podium remains empty for the moment. Indeed, none of the countries taken into account are implementing the necessary efforts to align themselves with the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom occupy the best places, while the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran are at the bottom of the pack.

ats/ther