Switzerland hits Overshoot Day 20 days earlier this year
Switzerland has used up its resources for the whole year
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Switzerland hits Overshoot Day 20 days earlier this year
Switzerland has already exhausted its natural resources for the year as of this Wednesday. This year’s Swiss Overshoot Day falls 20 days earlier than in 2024.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Schweiz hat ihre Ressourcen für das ganze Jahr aufgebraucht
Original
Starting on Wednesday, Switzerland will be living “on credit” for future generations, according to the #Movethedate Switzerland movement. If everyone on Earth lived like the Swiss, we would need 2.9 planets to sustain us.
The Swiss have a notably high environmental footprint. Compared to other countries, this impact is particularly evident in areas like transport, housing, food and the heavy consumption of imported goods, including electronic devices.
While individual efforts are crucial, they can only cut up to 20% of the climate and resource impact, the report states. The remaining 80% is influenced by policies and investment choices in key areas like energy, transport, food and the circular economy.
More
Swiss CO2 emissions: Small country, big footprint
The much-lauded Swiss quality of life has a dark side – namely levels of consumerism and convenience that jack up the national carbon footprint.
To mark Swiss Overshoot Day, Greenpeace activists and design students from Zurich University of the Arts unfurled a 70-metre-long receipt in Zurich’s Old Town. The receipt, featuring 127 questions on environmental protection and economic growth, symbolises the 127 days it took Switzerland to exhaust its natural resources.
External Content
Translated from German with DeepL/sp
How we work
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then briefly reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey below to help us understand your needs.
External Content
Don’t miss your chance to make a difference! Take our survey and share your thoughts.
Popular Stories
More
Climate adaptation
Why Switzerland is among the ten fastest-warming countries in the world
Has your continent reached its peak or is there still potential for economic growth?
Some regions of the world are on an upward trajectory with the promise of a steadily improving future. Where do you live? And in which direction is your region or continent developing?
This content was published on
Flight safety is reduced by the clogging of airspace, says Thomas Steffen, a pilot for Swiss and head of safety at Aeropers, the industry association.
Malaysian artist Yee I-Lann holds first major European exhibition in Thun
This content was published on
Das Kunstmuseum Thun richtet im August die erste grössere Europaausstellung der malaysischen Künstlerin Yee I-Lann aus. Darin werden Einflüsse des Kolonialismus aber auch das Fortbestehen des indigenen Erbes thematisiert.
Data from Swiss health foundation Radix leaked on the dark web
This content was published on
After the cyber attack suffered by the Radix foundation at the end of last month, sensitive personal data such as names and debts of people banned from casinos were published on the Darknet.
This content was published on
Companies with an externally validated net-zero target emit less CO2 than those without a climate target. This is the conclusion of a new analysis by the US financial services provider MSCI.
This content was published on
Swiss companies are increasingly being targeted by cyber criminals. In the past quarter, every single company in this country was the target of a cyber attack an average of 1097 times a week.
Swiss households faced 21 minutes of power outages in 2024
This content was published on
End customers experienced an average of 21 minutes of electricity interruption in 2024. This resulted in 0.34 power outages per capita. The duration of electricity interruptions increased by three minutes compared to the previous year.
Swiss citizens will be voting on restricting wind farm expansion
This content was published on
On Friday, the Association for the Protection of Nature and Democracy submitted two initiatives aimed at curbing the expansion of wind farms. More than 110,000 signatures have been collected.
E-bike riders regularly break speed limit in residential areas
This content was published on
Fast e-bikes regularly exceed the speed limit in residential areas. According to a new study with data on cyclists in Zurich, they regularly reach speeds of over 30 km/h.
This content was published on
Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to find staff, a problem made more acute by the increased bargaining power of employees and increased absenteeism.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.