Switzerland permitted a legislation on Sunday aimed toward accelerating the event of renewable energies, as a part of the nation’s bid to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Official outcomes confirmed that slightly below 69 % of Swiss voters backed the legislation on “a secure electricity supply based on renewable energies”, confirming polling developments revealed earlier than the nationwide referendum.
“The Swiss people have taken an important decision about our electricity supply,” mentioned the Alliance For a Secure and Inexpensive Electrical energy Provide, which backed the legislation.
Lower than two months in the past, Switzerland turned the primary nation ever to be condemned by a global courtroom for not doing sufficient to fight local weather change, in a ruling by the European Court docket of Human Rights.
The renewables legislation was permitted by parliament final yr, and most environmental organizations again the laws and its ambitions.
They embrace heavyweights Greenpeace and WWF.
Reacting to the referendum outcome, Greenpeace mentioned it meant nuclear was now “obsolete” and urged Swiss power group Axpo to “set a deadline for the swift and definitive halt of the two reactors and the Beznau nuclear plant”.
“They are among the oldest reactors still active on the planet and pose an insoluble security risk,” it mentioned.
Setting and Vitality Minister Albert Rosti mentioned the legislation was “an important milestone for strengthening security of supply” in Switzerland, significantly in winter.
Laborious-right opposition
It goals to spice up wind and solar energy’s present miniscule contribution to Switzerland’s power combine and quickly improve hydro manufacturing so the rich landlocked nation is much less depending on imported electrical energy.
The legislation envisages putting in photo voltaic panels on constructing roofs and facades.
It additionally eases planning permission for wind generators and huge photo voltaic installations.
Critics, together with a number of smaller environmental teams, argue the legislation will fast-track large-scale power tasks and see Switzerland’s pristine Alpine landscapes plastered with wind generators and photo voltaic panels.
In addition they say locals can have solely restricted potentialities to enchantment in opposition to the development of latest renewable power installations.
Switzerland’s largest occasion, the hard-right Swiss Folks’s Celebration (SVP), additionally opposed the legislation, above all within the identify of defending civil nuclear energy, which supplied 32 % of whole power manufacturing final yr.
After the vote it complained the legislation would supply Swiss folks with “little electricity, at a high price” and end in “massive environmental destruction”.
The federal government acknowledged that courtroom appeals in opposition to massive power tasks “will probably be less likely to succeed than before”.
Well being initiatives spurned
However it mentioned tasks could be examined on a case-by-case foundation and developing massive installations in “biotopes of national importance” and migratory hen reservations will stay banned, albeit with some exceptions.
The legislation foresees 16 hydroelectric tasks, a sector which final yr represented 57 % of home energy technology. These contain constructing new dams or heightening current ones.
Underneath Switzerland’s direct democracy system, residents can set off votes on subjects by accumulating 100,000 legitimate signatures inside 18 months. Voting takes place each three months.
There have been additionally ballots on Sunday on three health-related subjects, all of which have been rejected.
Voters threw out a proposal to cap well being contributions at 10 % of revenue and a bid to restrict well being prices.
In addition they spurned an initiative tabled by opponents of measures launched to stem the unfold of COVID.
Though it didn’t particularly point out vaccines, the proposal mentioned individuals who refused to present consent for sure medical procedures shouldn’t be penalized.
© 2024 AFP
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