Switzerland consumes nearly three planets’ worth of natural resources

Switzerland braoched its annual natural resources budget on May 13 this year. Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Switzerland has already consumed its fair share of the planet’s natural resources for the entire year, according to an NGO that compares the performance of numerous countries.

From May 13, Switzerland is taking more biocapacity than planet Earth can endure to remain healthy, says the international think tank Global Footprint Network.

Despite ‘Swiss Overshoot Day’ arriving within less than five months this year, Switzerland has improved its record. There is little difference from last year, but a decade ago the Alpine country reached this mark in mid-March.

Switzerland is the 27^th country to reach Overshoot Day this year, which started with Qatar on February 10External link.

Switzerland is a small country with a population of under nine million. But the advanced industrial nation punches above its weight in terms of natural resource consumption.

Wealthy Swiss residents like to drive large gas-guzzling cars and the construction industry consumes 56 million tons of raw materials each year.

Switzerland will consume 2.8 planets’ worth of natural resources by the year’s end, says Global Footprint Network.

The Alpine state narrowly failed to reach greenhouse gas emission reduction targets it had set out to achieve by 2020.

Under the terms of the Paris Climate Accord in 2015, Switzerland set a new target of halving emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2030 and has the stated intention to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

But the government was forced to re-draw its plans when voters rejected a package of climate reforms last year.