In 2023, Swiss voters accepted a plan to provide subsidies to replace oil and basic electric heating with cleaner more efficient heating, such as electric heat pumps. The plan involved spending CHF 200 million a year on such incentives over a 10-year period starting on 1 January 2025. However, Switzerland’s federal parliament decided in December […]
Swiss Rail’s European ranking drops from 2nd to 11th after error corrected
In a ranking published in December 2024, Swiss Rail was ranked the second best railway company in Europe. This week, RTS reported that its ranking had dropped to 11th out of 27. Why? Oddly, in its app, Swiss Rail presents half price tickets as the default price, describing them as “tickets from” the half price […]
Switzerland’s rapidly disappearing public car parking
Since 2015, around 11,000 public car park spaces have been removed in cities and large towns across Switzerland, according to recent analysis reported by Tages Anzeiger. More than 3,000 parking places have been removed in both Geneva and in Zurich, more than 2,500 in Lausanne, nearly 1,500 in Basel and around 1,300 in Bern. Cities […]
Swiss emergency rescue numbers rise sharply this Christmas
Over the three days of the Christmas period the Swiss Air Rescue Service Rega flew more than 150 rescue missions, an average of more than 50 a day, reported SRF. The number of air rescue flights over the 24th, 25th and 26th of December 2024 was 20% higher than over the same period in 2023. […]
Verbier misses emission busting opportunity
Holidays generate greenhouse gas and ski holidays are no exception. However, if no flying is involved, ski holidays can be relatively low carbon. The carbon consulting firm ecollective, includes a train-based ski trip to France (from the UK) among its list of lowest-carbon holidays. Transport fairly obviously accounts for most of the emissions associated with […]
Swiss environmental vote next February likely to fail
A poll published on 20 December 2024 suggests next February’s referendum on the environment is likely to fail, reported RTS. The initiative is vague, however, it aims to reduce economic activity and consumption to a level that allows the environment to regenerate back to its natural level. The natural resources used and the pollution emitted […]
Swiss set to vote on night train subsidies
This week, the Green Party and the environmental group actif-trafiC announced they had gathered enough signatures to trigger a vote to overturn a government decision to cut subsidies for overnight trains. Together, they presented 58,640 signatures to officials in Bern. In Switzerland, a referendum can be called to overturn a government decision if at least […]
Switzerland’s first nuclear power plant to go off line
On Thursday, Swiss power operator Axpo announced that it will take the Beznau nuclear power plant, which was first switched on 6 September 1969, offline from 2032, reported SRF. Interest in nuclear energy in Switzerland began shortly after the Second World War. In 1945, Switzerland’s federal government appointed a team led by the physicist Paul […]
Tourism one quarter of Switzerland’s traffic
New data show that tourism accounts for 25% of the total traffic on Swiss roads, reported SRF. The Federal Council report shows that leisure and tourism account for 53% of passenger road traffic, with the other 47% made up of commuting to and from work. Regular leisure traffic by residents of Switzerland accounted for 27% […]
Swiss voters shift right according to new poll
If elections were held in Switzerland today, parties on the right would move ahead at the expense of those on the left, especially parties focused on the environment, according to a recent poll run by Sotomo. The biggest gainer would be the Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP), which gained 2.0 percentage points in the poll, reaching […]
