On June 13, 2021, Switzerland voted on the revised CO₂ Act and rejected it with a majority of 51.6%. It was a missed opportunity for climate protection. The measures of the law would have led, among other things, to a higher taxation of fossil fuels, an air ticket levy, CO₂-neutral house construction from 2023 and a new climate fund. This would have provided annual funding of around one billion Swiss francs for climate protection measures and climate-friendly technologies.

In the city of St.Gallen, the final result of the vote on the CO₂ Act was 62.61% in favor.

Source: UVEK (2021), swissinfo (2021), Kanton SG (2021)

At the 26^th UN Climate Change Conference in 2021, important contributions were made to accelerate the achievement of climate goals. What makes COP26 special is that, for the first time, terms like «coal» and «fossil fuels» were explicitly mentioned in the climate pact, as can be seen in the following excerpt.

(…) «Calls upon Parties to accelerate the development, deployment and dissemination of technologies, and the adoption of policies, to transition towards low-emission energy systems, including by rapidly scaling up the deployment of clean power generation and energy efficiency measures, including accelerating efforts towards the phase-out of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, recognizing the need for support towards a just transition;» (…) (UNFCCC, 2021, pp. 4-5)

The first World Climate Conference took place in Geneva on February 12, 1979. At that time, international scientists and experts were already warning about a massive increase in the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere. Even then, we were made aware that human activities have long-term consequences for the climate.

Anthropogenic climate change has been a controversial topic in recent years. However, research shows a clear majority of scientific studies that prove climate change is man-made. The results of a scientific article show that 97% of all climate scientists agree that climate change is man-made.

Source: UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021 (2022), UNFCCC (2021), Umwelt Bundesamt. (o. D.), Cook et al. (2016)