To achieve this, things like CO2 emissions, biodiversity loss and water usage would have to have been seriously curbed – for example, the country would have had to decrease its per capita carbon footprint by over 90%, Greenpeace Switzerland estimated.
Backers of the idea, including the left-wing Social Democrats and a coalition of NGOs, did not concretely say how all this would have been achieved, though they said it should be done in a “socially acceptable” way and within a ten-year timeframe.
Switzerland already has a small per-capita carbon footprint. According to Our World in Data, Switzerland’s per capita CO2 emissions were 3.7 metric tonnes per person in 2023. We were recently told how well Germany is doing to lower its CO2, but Germany is at 7.1 tonnes per person. Some other European per-capita CO2 emissions below.
Tonnes CO2 per capita
Sweden 3.5 tonnes
Switzerland 3.7
France 4.1
United Kingdom 4.4
Spain 4.6
Italy 5.3
Germany 7.1
The United States, in comparison, is at 14.3 tonnes.
Switzerland’s electricity supply is also rather low carbon. The country’s CO2 intensity in the power grid is 35 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour. This is very low for a well developed European country. Switzerland generates most of its electricity from hydro and nuclear. Below is the 2023 electricity mix:
Switzerland, 2023, GWh
Hydro 41,187 GWh (56%)
Nuclear 24,384 (33%)
Solar 4419 (6%)
Other 3519 (~5%)
Switzerland is already doing fine in having a low carbon economy.