National Council wants information on the effectiveness of CO2 certificates
Published: Thursday, Sep 26th 2024, 19:10
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The Federal Council must demonstrate whether the certificates for the reduction of CO2 emissions abroad are achieving what they promise for the climate. An independent investigation should show how many additional CO2 emissions have been achieved with Swiss offsetting projects abroad.
The national government should also make recommendations to ensure that Swiss offsetting projects have the expected effect. On Thursday, the National Council passed a postulate by Bastien Girod (Greens/ZH) by 127 votes to 57 with one abstention, with which the Federal Council also agreed.
Girod justified the proposal with studies according to which the additional reduction actually measured for CO2 offsetting abroad is lower than the number of certificates issued. The behavior of countries that sell certificates to Switzerland with regard to climate targets should also be addressed in the report.
The question here is whether the partner countries have tightened their newly submitted climate targets by 2035 to such an extent that global warming is limited to well below 2 degrees. Or whether these countries have only marginally improved their targets so that they can sell more certificates to Switzerland.
Erich Hess (SVP/BE) criticized the system as "selling indulgences for a so-called clear conscience". And: No matter how many certificates Switzerland buys, it can do nothing for the climate. Only a small proportion of CO2 emissions are caused by humans.
Environment Minister Albert Rösti, on the other hand, agreed to draft the report. Switzerland had signed the Paris Agreement and was obliged to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. However, in the case of offsetting abroad, the reduction should not be counted in Switzerland or in the partner country.
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