Switzerland disappoints in global green rankings

Climate protests have urged Switzerland to improve its green credentials. © Keystone / Michael Buholzer

Switzerland’s green credentials have suffered a setback after missing out on a top 20 spot in the annual Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).

Switzerland managed to improve one place in the ranking by non-governmental organisations, but only managed a 21^st ranking when compared to other countries.

Switzerland earned its poor marks primarily due to the low proportion of renewable energies in the energy mix and for national climate policy, the environmental protection organisation WWF announced on Friday. This means that Switzerland also ended up behind India and the EU average, among other things.

Swiss politicians lack ideas on how to achieve these goals, according to the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2024. Switzerland’s goals are fundamentally clear. It wants to halve its emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and become climate neutral by 2050.

“Switzerland has signed the Paris climate agreement and stands by it,” says the Federal Office for the Environment when asked by Keystone-SDA. “We follow the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The measures to achieve these goals are defined in the CO2 law, which is currently being discussed in parliament.”

This year too, Denmark is the leading nation in the ranking. At the bottom of the ranking are the major oil and gas producers Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

The ranking was carried out by the NGOs Germanwatch, Newclimate Institute and the Climate Action Network. The CCPI assesses the climate protection efforts of 63 countries plus the European Union. 

They were all among the largest emitters and were responsible for 90% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it said. The four categories of greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energies, energy consumption and climate policy were evaluated.

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