Climate remains top priority

Swiss environmental policy will focus on climate change and biodiversity this year.

The Federal Environment Office said Switzerland would be revising its CO2 law and – during the United Nations Year of Biodiversity – focus efforts on stopping species and habitat loss.

Environment Office director Bruno Oberle said on Monday that the new biodiversity strategy should be signed off by the government by mid-year.

A 2007 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found more animals and plants were threatened or had disappeared in Switzerland than anywhere else in Europe. Switzerland’s lack of a national action plan was a major criticism.

Oberle added that Switzerland would be actively taking part in preparations for the UN climate conference in Mexico at the end of November.

Other topics will be improving the natural disaster warning system, as well as sustainability.

“If we want to keep our standard of living and let all people take part in it, we’ll need a further industrial revolution,” Oberle said in a statement. This means having a greener economy in which the necessary goods are produced at less cost to the environment.

swissinfo.ch and agencies