Annual investments in climate protection should be multiplied by 2 to 4 in Europe to achieve climate goals. This is one of the conclusions of the third and final part of the sixth report of the World Climate Council (IPCC).
This document published on Monday focuses on the mitigation of climate change, namely what actions can be put in place to mitigate it. Not less than 278 scientists took part, including Swiss.
According to the authors, broad-spectrum policy packages that involve as many social actors as possible are particularly effective. The rapid abandonment of fossil energy sources is at the heart of the measures to be taken.
In cities, appropriate infrastructure, for example in transport, can significantly reduce energy needs. On the land transport side, it is electrification that has the greatest potential, indicated the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences (SCNAT) during a press briefing on the occasion of the publication of the report.
Around the world, adaptations in agriculture and forestry as well as changes in land use can reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly and significantly.
The demand for goods, energy and services in general is also essential: a comprehensive climate-sensitive demand reduction and management strategy could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40-70% by 2050. If fossil fuel subsidies were stopped, greenhouse gas emissions would decrease by up to 10% by 2030.
“No Swiss exception”
“There is no Swiss exception, the IPCC recommendations are valid for Switzerland,” Julia Steinberger, professor of ecological economics at the University of Lausanne, academic co-director of CLIMACT, told Keystone-ATS. and lead author of Chapter 3 of the report. She also recalls that Switzerland is not one of the good students since it is among the twenty most polluting countries in terms of CO2 emissions per capita due to consumption.
“Energy reduction is possible, through efficiency, sobriety and renewables”, according to her, while maintaining a good quality of life for everyone.
The various IPCC reports show that urgent action is necessary, adds the Lausanne professor: “If we wanted to act quickly, it would be no problem. The transition would have been smoother if we had started 20 or 30 years ago, but the positive point today is that the possibilities have never been better, we have tracks for all sectors”.
For Julia Steinberger, fossil fuels are triply dangerous, for health, for the climate and also at the geopolitical level. We therefore have an advantage in getting out of it.
“Green” financial flows
Stefano Battiston, professor at the universities of Zurich and Venice, also one of the main authors of the report, underlines for his part that the “green” financial flows are still three to six times lower than the level required by 2030 to limit the rise in temperatures. two degrees.
The particularly strong Swiss financial center has a role to play here by supporting climate policy, according to this expert in sustainable finance. The cooperation between the financial sector, politics and the economy will be decisive for the implementation of the measures.
Switzerland could assume a pioneering role by investing in green technologies, continues the specialist, interviewed by Keystone-ATS. For this, the financial system must believe in it and act in a determined way, otherwise too little money will go into decarbonisation.
/ ATS