What to expect from Switzerland’s climate diplomacy at COP30

Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin speaks during the opening session of the Pre-COP30 meeting at the International Convention Centre in Brasilia, Brazil, on 13 October 2025. Andre Borges / Keystone

Ahead of the United Nations COP30 talks, which open in the Brazilian city of Belém next week, Switzerland is sending mixed signals about its engagement in climate diplomacy.

Six months after a glacier collapse devastated the village of Blatten, driving home the effects of climate change on Switzerland, a team of Swiss negotiators are heading to the Amazon city of Belém for the COP30 climate conference which take place from November 10-21. As national priorities and geopolitics shift, will Switzerland seize the opportunity to lead?

The glacier collapse and ensuing landslide which engulfed the canton Valais village of Blatten is one footnote among this year’s list of climate disasters. Others include devastating California wildfires, a category five hurricane that tore through Jamaica, and deadly monsoon rains in Pakistan, Nepal and India which displaced millionsExternal link of people. Losses are among the costliestExternal link ever recorded; $145 billion (CHF116 billion) in the first half of 2025, according to reinsurer Swiss Re. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has predicted that average global temperature increases will surpass the UN target limit of 1.5°CExternal link before the end of the decade, which in turn will spark more climate fallout.

Yet ahead of COP30 most developed nations are failing to curb emissions enough to slow temperature gains; neither are they meeting target submission deadlines or boosting funding to help developing countries cope with catastrophes.

Targets and deadlines

With the US scaling back climate policies and not planning to send any high-level officials to COP30 and with Europe focused on the war in Ukraine and the rise of populist politics, many are asking who will deliver the leadership and diplomacy needed to drive climate action.

After so few countries submitted their carbon-cutting plans, or NDCs as they are known in COP jargon, by the original February 10 deadline, an extended cutoff was set for the end of September. Yet, even now, just a thirdExternal link of signatories to the key Paris treaty that set the 1.5°C target have submitted their plans.

Switzerland was one of the first countries to reveal its NDCs, in January; its headline goal was a 65% cut in emissions by 2035 compared with 1990 levels.

In contrast, China, the world’s biggest fossil fuel emitter, waited until the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the final global climate event ahead of COP30, to informally announceExternal link plans to lower emissions by 7-10% from peak levels by 2035 – far short of expectations. The European Union (EU), for its part, reached a last-minute compromise on November 5 regarding greenhouse gas reduction targets: a cut between 66.25% and 72.5% by 2035, and a 90% reduction by 2040, compared to 1990 levels.

Ahead of the UNGA, Swiss civil society groups saw an opportunity amid the foot-dragging to nudge the country’s current president Karin Keller-Sutter to seize leadership on the world stage. A letter from Alliance Sud, an umbrella group for Swiss NGOs, argued that while the country’s NDC wasn’t ambitious enough, its early announcement “gives Switzerland the credibility to demand the submission of other countries’ NDCs”.

Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Geneva and Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), which isn’t part of Alliance Sud, sees the present moment as a test of resolve.

“With the US once again stepping back, it’s crucial that others step up and demonstrate that responsible governments take science and climate action seriously,” he said. “Switzerland has a strong track record in international environmental leadership and defending science-based decision-making.”

Duyck urged Switzerland to support majority votes at the climate conference, as it has done in other environmental discussions, to break negotiation deadlocks.

From Glasgow to Belém

Earlier in the year, Swiss negotiators were active in environmental talks, including in Geneva for a treaty on plastics where they pushed for bans, and at the International Maritime Organization, where they supported emissions cuts for international shipping.

At COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, Swiss Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga took an unusually public stance in trying to counter a last-minute attempt by India to stop calls for gradual cuts to fossil fuel usage. Unlike many ministers, Sommaruga stayed for most of the final week to ensure a stronger deal, campaigning on issues such as rules on avoiding double counting of carbon offsets in third countries.

At the UNGA in September, however, Keller-Sutter chose to leave New York before the high-level summit, and mentioned climate only in passing in her speech to the assembly on how multilateralismExternal link, currently threatened by donor funding cuts, is key to resolving global issues including climate, migration and the “digital transition”.

A spokesperson for the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) told Swissinfo that its climate envoy Felix Wertli, who had been expected to speak on behalf of the government at the climate summit in New York, “ultimately did not speak due to scheduling issues”.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter speaking to journalists following her speech to the UN General Assembly, before returning to Switzerland ahead of the UN climate summit in New York, September 24, 2025. Paula Dupraz-Dobias

“It’s not a burning topic for [Swiss authorities],” David Knecht, a programme officer at the Fastenaktion NGO, part of Alliance Sud, told Swissinfo. Knecht also noted that Keller-Sutter is not expected to travel to Belém, and said that while Swiss negotiators have been active this year at the plastics and IMO talks, engagement at ministerial level has been weaker. “There’s a lack of commitment. It’s a matter of personal agenda and priorities. This takes credibility from Switzerland as a strong force in environmental diplomacy.”

Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rösti, who will be in Belém, faced criticism following his appointment in 2022 due to his former role as a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry. Switzerland is one of the world’s biggest oil trading hubs, with roughly a third of the fossil fuel’s supplies traded in the Alpine country.

Stepping up

At a recent briefing about Switzerland’s role in the upcoming talks, Wertli told Swissinfo that the delegation had been in close contact with countries both in its negotiating group – the Environmental Integrity Group, including Mexico, South Korea Georgia, Liechtenstein and Monaco – and beyond. He said that at this “decisive moment”, the presence of the minister was also significant. “Despite being a relatively small country, we manage to make our voice heard and bring about decisions that strengthen the [Paris Agreement] system.”

The Swiss delegation also regularly reached out to individual countries within the EU and elsewhere to quickly submit their climate targets to align with the 1.5°C target, Wertli said.

In Belém, the country will unveil more cases of a mechanism it pioneered under the Paris deal, allowing for bilateral agreements with developing countries to offset carbon emissions. Switzerland is expected to offset up to 40% of its emissions via international carbon credits. The delegation will also launch an “Article 6 Ambition Alliance” to promote how the clause may be used to lift climate ambitions.

Read more about what new rules on carbon offsets mean for dealmaker Switzerland:

Room for improvement

Switzerland meanwhile faces criticism for favouring offsets over curbing its own emissions.

“As climate impacts increasingly affect Swiss communities, the government must adopt and implement measures which effectively reduce emissions in accordance with scientific guidance,” said Duyck at CIEL. A 2024 studyExternal link by Alliance Sud found that a bilateral deal with Ghana had overestimated the amount of emissions that were offset.

Some NGOs also point to economic conflicts. Environmental watchdogs argue that financial flows managed in Switzerland should be more compatible with international commitments. The Public Eye NGO estimates that fossil fuel products sold by Swiss-based energy trading companies emitted 100 timesExternal link more than the country did domestically. Swiss negotiators have maintained that their policies are mandated by parliament.

“Switzerland’s credibility as a climate leader hinges on aligning domestic action with its international commitments,” Duyck said. “Recent setbacks in sectoral climate policies undermine this leadership.”

Climate messaging 

Reacting to Brazil’s decision that it will start drilling for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River, Wertli questioned the timing of the announcement, but said the realistic situation for many countries is challenging.

“All states recognise the need to take action, and are preparing for climate change,” he said. “There is no model student, because everyone is in transition from an economic and social perspective.” He added that it was the role of the COP to provide the “signals and measures” to enable countries to step up their climate action and speed up implementation of plans to decarbonise.

Switzerland hosts “Planetary Embassy”

Switzerland has been amplifying its official messaging elsewhere on climate action. During New York’s climate week, held at the same time as the UNGA, the country hosted a side event called “Planetary Embassy”, which included talks on how to address the climate crisis. One panel questioned what it would mean if entire ecosystems were at the negotiating tables to advocate for themselves.

The theme recalled a February 2025 public vote in Switzerland, initiated by the youth section of the Green Party, for a “responsible economy that respects planetary boundaries”. The vote, which stressed Switzerland’s overconsumption of resources, was largely rejected.

“Diplomacy evolves and adapts as the world changes and brings up new challenges,” Niculin Jäger, Swiss ambassador and consul in New York, said at the event, noting that it was too late to view the climate crisis as simply a topic of political action. “It asks us to shift our focus and acknowledge that our survival depends on cooperation, not only among ourselves and states but with the very ecosystems.”

Philippe Roesle, CEO of Swissnex, speaking at the opening of a side event co-organised by the Swiss consular office in New York during the United Nations General Assembly high-level week, September 23, 2025. Paula Dupraz-Dobias

Edited by Tony Barrett/subbed by dos