Switzerland: International commitments and domestic drawbacks

This chapter provides an explanation why Switzerland seems to be less at the forefront of climate protection than in the past. It argues that the Swiss case offers an adequate setting to identify the key factors which could explain why climate leaders can deviate from ambitious mitigation pathways. To do so, the chapter focuses on the introduction of a carbon dioxide (CO2) tax, which Switzerland pushed at the international level since the 1990s. The oil crises of the 1970s had the effect of raising awareness that Switzerland needed to reduce its dependency on fossil energy imports. In the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, a national programme on energy efficiency was introduced, which set the goal of stabilising fossil fuel consumption and hence CO2 emissions by 2000. The political feasibility of policy instruments in general and emission taxes in particular strongly depends on the predominant constellation and policy preferences of important actors in a policy domain.