This does not take aviation into account. Apparently its not counted in, and according to World in Data, Switzerland is one of the top 5 countries in the world for flights pr capita.
No surprising, we can generate as much renewable energy as we want, recycle as much as possible, but it will never offset the huge consumption that comes with our wealthy lifestyle
Stop fucking driving everywhere. It’s not that hard to reduce your carbon footprint, especially living here, with our incredible public transport infrastructure and beautiful nature trails.
At the individual level, there are only a few things we can do to reduce our emissions:
* Stop flying. This is the biggest step you can do, we are talking about 3 tonnes of kgCO2eq for an intercontinental flight.
* Reduce your car usage, on average we emit 2 tonnes of CO2eq
* Invest in/ Move to an home with good isolation, and a heat pump.
* Reduce our consumption of apparel
* Reduce drastically beef consumption [beef emits 3x more CO2eq than chicken per kg]
The rest requires a structural change and there are little we can do unless we vote.
And let’s stop with the perfect solution, any of the points above will impact [especially flight], and we should try to tick all the bullets, the rest have marginal effects.
We import everything, so we don’t have to produce anything with nasty factories, easy green economy! You should see Liechtenstein and Luxembourg as well.
…I’ll just sit here waiting for the inevitable deluge of comments arguing that this is unfair, pointing fingers at other countries, and reminding everyone that “Switzerland can’t save the climate on its own.”
Private Jets are one of the biggest problems in carbon footprints…and since switzerland is attractiv for rich people who probably own private jets…so you can count 1+1 together…
I hate the “do less of xy” mentality here. It just dosn’t work.
Everyone most likely even the commenters themselves don’t act on it.
I say do the opposite, do more!
Here is what you can do:
– Work in the renewable energy industry
– Invest in renewable energy companies
– Install Solar PV on your house, even 2 balcony solar Panels help:
[https://www.erneuer.bar/](https://www.erneuer.bar/)
– Drive an EV if you have to drive (5x less energy used, way less CO2 and other emissions)
– Efficient homes and heating. A cheap solution that is overlooked often is Split heatpumps.
Ofc geothermal heatpums are great, but not every home owner has 50k to spend.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLmbihbGJM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLmbihbGJM)
I hate the hypocritical bullshit. I know very few people that actually act on their ideallistic standarts.
Most people just like to think and talk about it but don’t act like it.
What is not clear from the article is whether the average Swiss consumer actually is responsible for more imported emissions than similar people in other countries. As a proportion of the total, imports are higher, but the data it presents also shows that domestic generation is lower. If you reduce domestic emissions then importing a a fixed level will lead to a rise as a proportion.
I also note this statement “The chemical and pharmaceutical industries, for example, import the most greenhouse gas emissions as an economic sector” that entirely fails to give any indication of how much of the production of those industries is consumed domestically as opposed to being exported. If imported emissions are an important factor (and they are), then so are exported emissions.
The article attempts to raise an important issue, but the data it presents is far from clear in terms of the specific narrative it is presenting.
Is it tolerated on this sub to say that I do not worry at all about the consequences of rising CO2 levels ?
Yes, this is long known. Even if right-wing parties usually claim the opposite by ignoring consumption-based emissions.
Simplified:
More wealth = more consumption = more CO2
Who thought
Hahaha just be poor like me 🙂 no car, no vacations, no expensive out-of-season foods, 1 pair of shoes and tge same bunch of clothes for 5 years.
Maybe we should spread chronic depression so we use less co2 /s
If only there was anything that consumes CO2 to survive… imagine how amazing that would be? Next level is if it converted it into something useful like oxygen. Pff, just wishful thinking on my part
Make homeoffice mandatory or at least 3x a week for everyone so you don’t have to waste your time and resources traveling back and forth every freaking day.
From the article: 80% of Switzerland’s climate footprint is due to imports
It doesn’t make it clear how much the local industry contributes, but I would expect at minimum 10% with the carbon footprint of individuals being in single digits.
What I get from this is that “drive less” a bit of useless advice. Consumption habits and urge to travel abroad will not change either.
Firstly, the biggest change that needs to happen is the change in the transportation industry and energy production within Europe (including Switzerland). Cars and trucks need to become fully electric in the next 20 years so that continental transportation is carbon-free. And then drive as much as you want.
Secondly, energy production in Europe needs to be carbon free. If every country in Europe achieves a carbon-free energy mix their industrial production will also be carbon free and that will bring down their own carbon footprint as well as Switzerland’s via imports. And if continental transport is also carbon free, this is a huge win.
Thirdly, is the matter of flights and intercontinental transportation (shipping). Again the long term solution cannot be giving up intercontinental trade. The long term solution has to be technology advancements for carbon-free trade and flights. In the meantime however, we should seek to reduce intercontinental imports and sourcing/producing more stuff locally in Europe. We need to use the emission lowering as the veil for reversing decades long unwritten policy of outsourcing low cost production to Asia. There are low cost regions in Europe to invest in. This will drive some inflation but on the longer term make the continent more self sufficient which has strategic benefit in this increasingly uncertain world.
That’s my 2 Rappen.
Bro, I pay 50 Rappe every time I order something online to counter the Co2. They will plant a tree in india or something, don’t you know about this? We don’t need to use less Co2, we just need to pay more for other countries to plant a tree or something idk /s
What more can we do to be on the top?
More seriously I don’t know how we a tiny country can enforce other countries like china or the USA (which removed itself from the latest climate accords) to improve and change their manufacturing process and energy consumption..
Ban Zalando
Not surprised.
* Go to any Swiss city and it’s overrun with sports cars and SUVs. Our tax money directly supports building new roads and subsidized parking. Car commutes can be deducted from taxes.
* Go to any other country and it’s overrun by Swiss tourists flying there (yes I’m a hypocrite because I do it too).
* “We” aka the real estate sector tears down a ton of still useful housing to build new more expensive units to maximize the rent seeking.
* We spend billions to subsidize farming and beef production.
And these are just the direct emissions. Factor in that Swiss people also have a ton of money invested through our pension funds (1.2 trillion), central bank (700 billion) and of course private household savings invested in the stock market. As 100 companies are responsible for 71% of GHG emissions, investing in them means “importing” even more emissions.
Just goes to show that even if we convince the green NIMBYs and build more renewables and nuclear, so much of our contribution to climate change is indirect.
One thing I don’t get in this article: They say the CH pharma and chemical industry import a ton of emissions, but surely these products then get re-exported? Switzerland is a net exporter of products and services. How is this factored into the calculation?
It seems like barely anyone in the comments here read the article. Everyone suggesting to buy new things like an EV and PV didn’t get the message – the Swiss have a below than average carbon footprint when it comes to CO2 emissions produced within the country, it’s the import and consumption of products from outside the country that’s the issue.
So essentially, the solution is buying less products that originate from outside the country. The further away a product has to be transported, the larger the CO2 emissions. Buy local when possible, eat less meat, and reduce consumerism.
One example: online retailers like Temu and Aliexpress have flooded the market with cheap products from China – according to the Blick, up to 500’000 packages are arriving by plane in Switzerland from Asia, *every day.* That’s incredible for such a small country.
22 comments
This does not take aviation into account. Apparently its not counted in, and according to World in Data, Switzerland is one of the top 5 countries in the world for flights pr capita.
No surprising, we can generate as much renewable energy as we want, recycle as much as possible, but it will never offset the huge consumption that comes with our wealthy lifestyle
Stop fucking driving everywhere. It’s not that hard to reduce your carbon footprint, especially living here, with our incredible public transport infrastructure and beautiful nature trails.
At the individual level, there are only a few things we can do to reduce our emissions:
* Stop flying. This is the biggest step you can do, we are talking about 3 tonnes of kgCO2eq for an intercontinental flight.
* Reduce your car usage, on average we emit 2 tonnes of CO2eq
* Invest in/ Move to an home with good isolation, and a heat pump.
* Reduce our consumption of apparel
* Reduce drastically beef consumption [beef emits 3x more CO2eq than chicken per kg]
The rest requires a structural change and there are little we can do unless we vote.
And let’s stop with the perfect solution, any of the points above will impact [especially flight], and we should try to tick all the bullets, the rest have marginal effects.
We import everything, so we don’t have to produce anything with nasty factories, easy green economy! You should see Liechtenstein and Luxembourg as well.
While our emissions are globally going down, it is still way too high per capita. The two biggest producing sectors are transport and industry. [source](https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/climate/state/data/greenhouse-gas-inventory.html)
…I’ll just sit here waiting for the inevitable deluge of comments arguing that this is unfair, pointing fingers at other countries, and reminding everyone that “Switzerland can’t save the climate on its own.”
Private Jets are one of the biggest problems in carbon footprints…and since switzerland is attractiv for rich people who probably own private jets…so you can count 1+1 together…
I hate the “do less of xy” mentality here. It just dosn’t work.
Everyone most likely even the commenters themselves don’t act on it.
I say do the opposite, do more!
Here is what you can do:
– Work in the renewable energy industry
– Invest in renewable energy companies
– Install Solar PV on your house, even 2 balcony solar Panels help:
[https://www.erneuer.bar/](https://www.erneuer.bar/)
– Drive an EV if you have to drive (5x less energy used, way less CO2 and other emissions)
– Efficient homes and heating. A cheap solution that is overlooked often is Split heatpumps.
Ofc geothermal heatpums are great, but not every home owner has 50k to spend.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLmbihbGJM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLmbihbGJM)
I hate the hypocritical bullshit. I know very few people that actually act on their ideallistic standarts.
Most people just like to think and talk about it but don’t act like it.
What is not clear from the article is whether the average Swiss consumer actually is responsible for more imported emissions than similar people in other countries. As a proportion of the total, imports are higher, but the data it presents also shows that domestic generation is lower. If you reduce domestic emissions then importing a a fixed level will lead to a rise as a proportion.
I also note this statement “The chemical and pharmaceutical industries, for example, import the most greenhouse gas emissions as an economic sector” that entirely fails to give any indication of how much of the production of those industries is consumed domestically as opposed to being exported. If imported emissions are an important factor (and they are), then so are exported emissions.
The article attempts to raise an important issue, but the data it presents is far from clear in terms of the specific narrative it is presenting.
Is it tolerated on this sub to say that I do not worry at all about the consequences of rising CO2 levels ?
Yes, this is long known. Even if right-wing parties usually claim the opposite by ignoring consumption-based emissions.
Simplified:
More wealth = more consumption = more CO2
Who thought
Hahaha just be poor like me 🙂 no car, no vacations, no expensive out-of-season foods, 1 pair of shoes and tge same bunch of clothes for 5 years.
Maybe we should spread chronic depression so we use less co2 /s
If only there was anything that consumes CO2 to survive… imagine how amazing that would be? Next level is if it converted it into something useful like oxygen. Pff, just wishful thinking on my part
Make homeoffice mandatory or at least 3x a week for everyone so you don’t have to waste your time and resources traveling back and forth every freaking day.
From the article: 80% of Switzerland’s climate footprint is due to imports
It doesn’t make it clear how much the local industry contributes, but I would expect at minimum 10% with the carbon footprint of individuals being in single digits.
What I get from this is that “drive less” a bit of useless advice. Consumption habits and urge to travel abroad will not change either.
Firstly, the biggest change that needs to happen is the change in the transportation industry and energy production within Europe (including Switzerland). Cars and trucks need to become fully electric in the next 20 years so that continental transportation is carbon-free. And then drive as much as you want.
Secondly, energy production in Europe needs to be carbon free. If every country in Europe achieves a carbon-free energy mix their industrial production will also be carbon free and that will bring down their own carbon footprint as well as Switzerland’s via imports. And if continental transport is also carbon free, this is a huge win.
Thirdly, is the matter of flights and intercontinental transportation (shipping). Again the long term solution cannot be giving up intercontinental trade. The long term solution has to be technology advancements for carbon-free trade and flights. In the meantime however, we should seek to reduce intercontinental imports and sourcing/producing more stuff locally in Europe. We need to use the emission lowering as the veil for reversing decades long unwritten policy of outsourcing low cost production to Asia. There are low cost regions in Europe to invest in. This will drive some inflation but on the longer term make the continent more self sufficient which has strategic benefit in this increasingly uncertain world.
That’s my 2 Rappen.
Bro, I pay 50 Rappe every time I order something online to counter the Co2. They will plant a tree in india or something, don’t you know about this? We don’t need to use less Co2, we just need to pay more for other countries to plant a tree or something idk /s
What more can we do to be on the top?
More seriously I don’t know how we a tiny country can enforce other countries like china or the USA (which removed itself from the latest climate accords) to improve and change their manufacturing process and energy consumption..
Ban Zalando
Not surprised.
* Go to any Swiss city and it’s overrun with sports cars and SUVs. Our tax money directly supports building new roads and subsidized parking. Car commutes can be deducted from taxes.
* Go to any other country and it’s overrun by Swiss tourists flying there (yes I’m a hypocrite because I do it too).
* “We” aka the real estate sector tears down a ton of still useful housing to build new more expensive units to maximize the rent seeking.
* We spend billions to subsidize farming and beef production.
And these are just the direct emissions. Factor in that Swiss people also have a ton of money invested through our pension funds (1.2 trillion), central bank (700 billion) and of course private household savings invested in the stock market. As 100 companies are responsible for 71% of GHG emissions, investing in them means “importing” even more emissions.
Just goes to show that even if we convince the green NIMBYs and build more renewables and nuclear, so much of our contribution to climate change is indirect.
One thing I don’t get in this article: They say the CH pharma and chemical industry import a ton of emissions, but surely these products then get re-exported? Switzerland is a net exporter of products and services. How is this factored into the calculation?
It seems like barely anyone in the comments here read the article. Everyone suggesting to buy new things like an EV and PV didn’t get the message – the Swiss have a below than average carbon footprint when it comes to CO2 emissions produced within the country, it’s the import and consumption of products from outside the country that’s the issue.
So essentially, the solution is buying less products that originate from outside the country. The further away a product has to be transported, the larger the CO2 emissions. Buy local when possible, eat less meat, and reduce consumerism.
One example: online retailers like Temu and Aliexpress have flooded the market with cheap products from China – according to the Blick, up to 500’000 packages are arriving by plane in Switzerland from Asia, *every day.* That’s incredible for such a small country.
Comments are closed.