2024-01-23 14:14:51
Industry must become climate-neutral by 2050 – but not just them: waste incineration plant in Zurich.
Photo: Gaetan Bally (Keystone)
This will not work with the goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. This finding comes from the Federal Audit Office. The federal government’s top financial regulator has examined what benefits climate protection would have if energy-intensive companies opted out of CO2 emissions2-Exempt the tax on fossil fuels and in return commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The conclusion is that the effect is mediocre.
The tax exemption itself makes sense – at least as long as there is no internationally coordinated climate tax on fossil fuels. It prevents competitive disadvantages for companies in Switzerland. And thus reduces the risk of companies migrating abroad, where they may then not be subject to climate regulations.
But it is high time to tighten the instrument. The federal government must define significantly more ambitious climate goals with the tax-exempt companies. And if they miss the guidelines, it will really hurt them financially. This is the only way to create the necessary pressure for further decarbonization of the economy.
The financial control report comes not a moment too soon. Many companies have implemented easy-to-implement climate protection measures in recent years; These low-hanging fruits have largely been harvested. This makes the task ahead more difficult.
Switzerland must become climate neutral by 2050; That’s what the voters decided. However, it is doubtful whether the Federal Council and Parliament will do everything in their power to achieve this goal. For years they have been pursuing a climate policy with the handbrake on.
This is exemplified by the lax treatment of tax-exempt companies. This half-heartedness has to stop. Mitigating climate change is a race against time. Switzerland, which has trudged along for years, now has to accelerate even more.
The fatal narrative
However, such a speed uptake creates resistance. This is all the more so as stricter rules are needed not only for tax-exempt companies, but also for climate protection as a whole – and thus also for CO2-Incentive tax that the population and the rest of the economy pay.
Politicians must reduce the current price of 120 francs per ton of CO2 raise significantly. Because most of the revenue from the tax flows back to the population and the economy, climate-friendly behavior would pay off more in the future.
Only: in 2021 the voters will have the CO2law and thus new and higher taxes rejected. The narrative that has dominated climate policy since then: We don’t want to burden people and companies with new or higher taxes, we prefer to pay subsidies – as if billions of dollars in tax money simply fell from the sky.
There is no change of course in sight. The new CO2Law that sets climate policy from 2025 to 2030 is on the home stretch in parliament – and hardly ambitious. And new proposals for the period after that are extremely difficult. Mitte boss Gerhard Pfister proposes a comprehensive steering system for all fossil energies. His initiative is threatened with a premature end in parliament.
This is worrying. The defeat in the 2021 vote is increasingly becoming a liability for Swiss climate policy.
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– This half-heartedness has to stop
The Federal Council and Parliament must step up their game when it comes to climate protection. This is shown by a new financial control report.