Almost 60% of Swiss voters have backed plans to severely cut emissions by 2050 despite opposition from the right-wing Swiss People's Party. In a second vote, 78.5% supported a minimum tax of 15% for multinational firms.
Swiss voters on Sunday supported a new climate bill aimed at combating the melting glaciers and requiring the country to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Leading Swiss glaciologist Matthias Huss, who has closely followed the glaciers' decline, tweeted that a "strong signal" had been sent, adding he was "very happy the arguments of climate science were heard."
Socialist Party parliamentarian Valerie Piller Carrard also welcomed the result as "an important step for future generations."
A full 59.1% of voters back the new law, which will require Switzerland to slash its dependence on imported oil and gas and scale up the development of greener, more homegrown alternatives.
Voters also backed adopting a global minimum tax rate of 15% for international companies in a second referendum, with 78.5% in favor of the new, higher rate.
Parliament already passed the climate law, which aims to make Switzerland climate neutral by 2050 and reduce the impact on the country's iconic glaciers, which are melting away at an alarming rate.
But the right-wing conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP) had refused to back it, arguing that cutting climate-damaging emissions by 75% by 2050, compared to 1990, would cause energy prices to explode.
SVP leader Marco Chiesa last month criticized the "utopian" vision behind the bill, maintaining it would drive up energy costs by 400 billion Swiss francs (€447 billion, €4.08 billion) while having basically "no impact" on the global climate.
The SVP collected sufficient signatures to force the referendum vote under Switzerland's system of direct democracy.
The famous glaciers of the Alps are being hit hard by a warming planet Image: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Backers of the plan argue that Switzerland will be hard-hit by climate change and is already seeing the effects of rising temperatures in the Alps.
Swiss glaciers experienced record melting last year, losing more than 6% of their volume and alarming scientists who say a loss of 2% would once have been considered extreme.
Opinion polls indicate strong support for the proposed law, the most recent by pollster gfs.bern put public backing at 63%.
The Swiss government is keen to promote the departure from fossil fuel use in heating with financial incentives.
Companies will also be supported to help them convert to climate-friendly technologies.
What is the impact of the glacier loss in the Alps? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Over a period of 10 years, 3.2 billion Swiss francs are available for this purpose.
Switzerland still imports about three-quarters of its energy and the need to transition has been made more urgent by unstable supplies from Russia due to the Ukraine war.
In an attempt to bring down that share, the government is planning to allow companies to build large solar panel parks in the Alps, along with more wind turbines.
Climate activists had initially wanted to push for a total ban on all oil and gas consumption in Switzerland by 2050.
But the government balked at the so-called Glacier Initiative, drawing up a counter-proposal that scrapped the idea of a ban but included other elements.
Meteorologists have warned that climate change to exacerbate natural disasters in the Alps and hurt tourism revenues.
Corporate taxes to rise in line with rest of world
In the case of corporate taxes, the issue is the implementation of a decision by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to require international companies with sales of at least $750 million to be taxed at a rate of at least 15%.
Many of Switzerland's 26 cantons have imposed some of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world, in what they often said was needed to attract businesses in the face of high wages and location costs.
The government estimates that revenues from the supplementary tax would amount to between 1 billion and 2.5 billion Swiss francs in the first year alone.
Basel and Zug, where large pharmaceutical and trading groups are based, would benefit most from higher tax revenues.
Captain_Bad on June 19th, 2023 at 04:55 UTC »
To give a little context, Switzerland has not suddenly become a social-democrat paradise.
Both these subjects the Swiss voted on were agreements made by the government with other countries. The reduction of gas emission is in line with other neighboring countries and is less controversial and less complex than the project proposed one year ago (I think) which was rejected by the population and which corresponded to the Paris agreements.
Moreover the project to tax the rich is great, don't get me wrong. But it is a project which comes from the OECD and G20. So the government was committed to make it happen.
And of course there is always a possibility that the population would reject both projects. However it is VERY rare that the population votes the opposite of what the government recommends. Last year the Swiss rejected the climate project which was in line with the Paris agreements and recommended by the government. But it was barely refused because of concerns for the lack of social policies and not only because of far-right climate change denial propaganda.
Yandoraraw on June 18th, 2023 at 22:18 UTC »
Yeah this doesn't seem too good
green_flash on June 18th, 2023 at 22:06 UTC »
Carbon neutrality by 2050 is in line with what most of the Western world is aiming for: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_neutrality#/media/File:Countries_by_intended_year_of_climate_neutrality.png
Only some Nordic countries as well as Austria and Germany plan for an earlier date of carbon neutrality.