Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

Over the past 20 years Switzerland has become a leader in drone research and development. They seem to be everywhere – used to search for missing people or fawns, or even found in war zones.

The latest news is that the flying machines are being deployed to hunt graffiti artists and clean facades and outside windowsExternal link on buildings and flats. What next?

Read on for more news and articles from Switzerland today.

The Swiss Federal Railways is taking action against graffiti artists. Keystone-SDA

In the news: Switzerland and EU relations, international cooperation, drones v graffiti and skilled workers.

• The Swiss electorate remains convinced by the bilateral agreements with the European Union. A majority is prepared to compromise in the current negotiations, according to a survey published on behalf of the pharmaceutical association Interpharma.
• Swiss athletes Marcel Hug and Elena Kratter will carry the Swiss flag at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Paris on August 28.
• Switzerland should focus on international cooperation to strengthen its position, say studies by the University of St Gallen and the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.
• The Swiss Federal Railways has been using drones in the fight against graffiti sprayers since the beginning of July.
• The Swiss government has been providing the economy with financial support for years to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers. In a report the Swiss Federal Audit Office concludes that these measures have only had a limited effect.
• Albane Valenzuela will be the first Swiss golfer to play in either the Solheim or Ryder Cup, the biennial tournaments between Europe and the United States.

The editorial office of the free daily newspaper 20 Minuten in Zurich in 2019. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

More bleak news for the Swiss media sector.

Today TX Group announced the reduction of around 200 full-time positions in the printing plants of its subsidiary Tamedia. In addition, 90 jobs will be affected in the editorial offices, the media group said.

The company also wants to limit its digital offering to four brands: Tages-Anzeiger, Berner Zeitung, Basler Zeitung and, in French-speaking Switzerland, 24 Heures. Der Bund and Tribune de Genève will retain their own digital presence. Titles from the media company with less reach are to be integrated into the four brands mentioned. All Tamedia titles will continue to be available as printed newspapers.

Tamedia is no longer able to operate three printing plants profitably, it said. Printing plants will therefore be successively shut down: the printing centre in Bussigny, canton Vaud, is expected to close at the end of March 2025. The printing plant in Zurich will close at the end of 2026, meaning that printing will be concentrated at the centre in Bern.

The announcement comes after the TX Group reported a profit of CHF24.5 million in the first half of the year, compared with CHF13.7 million in the same period of the previous year. 

Journalists, unions and officials in canton Vaud have expressed their shock at the scale of the cuts.

Tamedia currently employs 1,400 people in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. The 290 job losses announced today came after the four main newspaper publishers announced 300 job cuts in Switzerland in 2023.

No canton is on track for the Paris climate agreement. Keystone-SDA

Which is the most climate-conscious canton?

Despite some progress, not one of Switzerland’s 26 cantons is yet on a trajectory compatible with the Paris climate agreement, which would limit global warming to 1.5°C, according to a rankingExternal link by WWF Switzerland.

The NGO examined the 26 cantons to check their climate and energy policies. According to its ranking, the most climate-conscious canton is Basel City. Appenzell Inner Rhodes lags furthest behind.

The cantons are responsible for overseeing issues like heating, insulation and charging stations for electric cars in buildings. When it comes to replacing oil and gas heating systems with climate-friendly systems, Basel City is a leader, WWF found.

But even in Basel City too much energy is lost in houses and too little renewable electricity is produced, for example in solar panels on roofs, it says. To produce more solar power on roofs and facades in the future, the Basel government has launched a so-called solar initiative.

Many cantons still have catching up to do in terms of ​​energy efficiency. Canton Geneva is a good example. It has an legal obligation to renovate in place: inefficient buildings with a heat consumption above a specified value must be renovated and the heat consumption reduced.

“The cantons have taken action in recent years. The problem is that these measures are not being implemented as quickly or as ambitiously as would be necessary,” says Leandro de Angelis, Climate and Energy Project Manager at WWF Switzerland.