Switzerland Boosts CO2 Reduction Target After Climate Report

(Bloomberg) -- The Swiss government aims to make the country climate neutral by 2050, stepping up its efforts to cut carbon emissions to fight global warming.

Switzerland now plans to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 to meet the target of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a statement on Wednesday. The country had previously planned to reduce emissions by 70%–85% by 2050 as part of the Paris Agreement.

The government said it’s responding to a 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report stating “global warming of 1.5 degrees could also lead to serious changes in ecosystems and that a net emission balance of zero would have to be achieved considerably sooner.” The nation’s former target has been based on the IPCC’s finding that global warming would have to be reduced to less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The move comes after a proposal by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to tighten the European Union’s carbon reduction target, courting potential controversy with some trade bloc members who would struggle to adjust their climate protection policy. Poland in June resisted a push by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to get EU states to signal support for a “carbon neutral” bloc by 2050.

--With assistance from Catherine Bosley.

To contact the reporter on this story: Leonard Kehnscherper in Zurich at lkehnscherpe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lukas Strobl at lstrobl@bloomberg.net, Jan Dahinten

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