Switzerland Sets Target to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 65% by 2035
The Swiss government announced that it has approved a new climate goal, targeting a 65% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2035, on a 1990 basis.
The new decarbonization goal will form the basis of Switzerland’s second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, which the Swiss Federal Council said will be submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by February 10.
NDCs are national climate action plans presented by each country under the agreement, and are required to be updated every five years with increasingly higher ambition. Switzerland’s current NDC, submitted in 2017, is to achieve a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030.
Bridging the NDCs, alongside the 2035 goal, the government said that it will also target an average 59% GHG emissions reduction between 2031 and 2035.
According to the Federal Council, the new targets align with the goals set out in Switzerland’s climate law, the Climate and Innovation Act. Approved in a 2023 referendum, the Act enshrines into law Switzerland’s 2050 net zero target, and includes a broad range of measures aimed at enabling the achievement of the net zero goal, including interim national and sectoral emissions reduction targets, initiatives to reduce energy consumption, and incentives to help migrate industry, buildings and homes away from the use of fossil fuel-based power. The law also includes a requirement for all companies to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
While the government stated that its new 2031 – 2035 goals “are to be achieved primarily through domestic measures,” a supplement to Switzerland’s long-term climate strategy released alongside the new targets said that the country “is also retaining the option of including reductions achieved abroad (ITMOs), or transfers of surplus emissions reductions from other abroad, to reach its goals, although the share of ITMOs are anticipated to be below those used to reach the 2030 target.