Legislation and international agreements
International agreements
On the occasion of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, 158 countries signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change, which came into effect in March 1994. Its objective is "to stabilise the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a level that prevents all dangerous anthropogene disturbances of the climatic system", i.e. to reduce emissions to the 1990 level. The Kyoto Protocol, signed by Switzerland in 1998, was ratified by 96 countries (including Switzerland in 2003). It entered into force with the signature of Russia at the end of 2004 (having met the requirements of Article 25, that it be ratified by 55 parties, totalling no less than 55% of the total CO2 emissions for 1990).
Law on CO2
The federal law on the reduction of CO2 emissions, which came into force in 2000, requires total CO2 emissions to be cut by 10% from their 1990 level, by 2010. This goal was supposed to be achieved mainly through voluntary measures, but it soon became evident that that these were not sufficient. The Government therefore authorised:
- the deduction of a "climate cent" for 2006 and 2007, on a trial basis. This tax is intended to support projects that seek to reduce CO2 emissions in the transportation field
- the levying of a tax, with Parliament’s approval, of CHF 12/t CO2 (3 ct/ l fuel oil) on fossil fuels (fuel oil and gas) from 1 January 2008.
