Swiss government rejects wind power initiatives

Federal Council rejects wind power popular initiatives without a counter-proposal Keystone-SDA

The Swiss government has rejected the forest protection and community protection initiatives. The initiatives, which were launched at the end of September, aim to restrict the expansion of wind power to protect forests and communities.

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The core concerns of the two initiatives “Against the destruction of our forests by wind turbines” and “For the protection of direct democracy in wind farms” are already taken into account in the current legislation, the government announced on Wednesday. The acceleration decree passed by Parliament in the autumn would further strengthen the concerns of the initiators.

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However, according to the government, accepting the initiatives would severely restrict the expansion of wind energy in Switzerland. As two thirds of electricity from wind energy is produced in the winter months, a pillar of security of supply in winter would be lost and would have to be compensated for.

The national government expects the messages on the two initiatives in May 2026.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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