New survey sees little chance for environmental responsibility initiative
Published: Friday, Dec 27th 2024, 07:20
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The environmental responsibility initiative is likely to have a difficult time in the vote on February 9. In a poll conducted by "20 Minuten"/Tamedia, a high 63% of voters were against the initiative.
34 percent of respondents agreed with the Young Greens' proposal, while 3 percent were undecided, as reported by "20 Minuten" on Friday. Typically, the "yes" percentage for an initiative falls as the voting campaign progresses. There are still weeks to go before the ballot, and the debates and campaigns are only just beginning.
However, in this case, the pollsters expected the proponent camp to shrink less. The fundamental issue has already been discussed intensively in recent years on the basis of similar initiatives, such as the Responsible Business Initiative and the Initiative for a Green Economy.
For a resource-conserving economy
With the popular initiative "For a responsible economy within planetary boundaries (environmental responsibility initiative)", the Alliance for Environmental Responsibility wants an economy that conserves resources and is calling for the constitution to be amended. Within ten years, Switzerland's environmental impact should no longer exceed the "planetary boundaries" as a proportion of the population.
The Federal Council and Parliament reject the proposal. Among other things, they fear that the requirements for the economy will be too radical.
For opponents, the required restructuring of the economy would result in immense costs and competitive disadvantages, which would endanger jobs and lead to price increases and a loss of prosperity. They also believe that the initiative represents a serious encroachment on economic freedom and the freedom of choice of private individuals.
According to the proponents, it is high time to take action against the climate crisis. Previous measures would not be enough to prevent climate collapse.
Gender ditch
According to the survey, the initiative is highly polarizing. According to the data, the rejection is clear among voters in the center, FDP and SVP (79, 89 and 90 percent no). By contrast, the issue enjoys strong support among the left-green electorate (Greens and SP 89 and 70 percent yes respectively). A majority of the GLP base also supports the proposal, albeit less strongly at 54%.
There were also major differences in voting intentions by gender. While only 26% of men wanted to vote in favor of the initiative, the proportion of women voting yes was 43%.
The survey of 10,139 people was conducted by the Leewas Institute on December 18 and 19. The margin of error was 1.7 points.
The environmental responsibility initiative had already been rejected in a survey commissioned by SRG at the beginning of December. At that time, a relative majority of 49% of voters would have definitely or rather voted against it.
©Keystone/SDA
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