2023-06-18 08:32:08
BERLIN (AP) — Voters in Switzerland will go to the polls on Sunday to decide on a bill to introduce new climate measures to drastically curb the wealthy Alpine nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The referendum was sparked by a campaign by scientists and environmentalists to save Switzerland’s iconic glaciers, which are melting at an alarming rate.
Initially, the activists proposed even more ambitious measures, but later endorsed a government plan that requires Switzerland to achieve “net zero” emissions by 2050. It also sets aside more than 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.357 billion) to help companies and homeowners to ditch fossil fuels.
The nationalist Swiss People’s Party, which has demanded a popular vote on the bill, says the proposed measures will cause electricity prices to rise.
Supporters of the plan argue that Switzerland will be hit hard by global warming and is already feeling the effects of rising temperatures on its famous glaciers.
Swiss glaciers experienced record melting last year, losing more than 6% of their volume and alarming scientists who say a 2% loss would once have been considered extreme.
Experts like Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, have posted dramatic snapshots of retreating glaciers and rock slides from melting permafrost on social media to highlight the changes taking place in the Alps.
“Let’s act while we can prevent the worst,” he recently wrote on Twitter.
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