Switzerland
Rating
Assessment
Switzerland's unconditional commitment by 2020 of -20% relative to 1990 emissions is rated as Medium. If it were to adopt the conditional commitment of -30%, it would reach the Sufficient category. Switzerland's preferred LULUCF option gives a very small credit from accounting in 2020. LULUCF accounting was calculated based on Party-provided projections, if future emissions instead were to follow a historical mean, small debits could result. In addition, Switzerland supports proposals to remove emissions from natural disturbances and to count removals from harvested wood products. This has not been accounted for here, but could lead to higher credits (or lower debits).
Description
Switzerland's Kyoto target is -8% relative 1990 emissions. Its commitment for 2020 is to reduce emissions in the range of 20 to 30% relative to 1990 emissions. The -20% commitment is unconditional whilst the -30% is conditional as part of a global and comprehensive agreement post-2012 where other developed countries take comparable emission reductions and developing countries contribute according to their capabilities and where bunker fuels form part of global reduction objectives covered under a sectoral approach.
Switzerland's Governmental processes on a 2050 target or goal are proceeding and not yet concluded, however it is felt that there is a very high degree of certainty that this will converge on a range of -80 to -95% from 1990 levels, as recently adopted by the European Union.
In May 2012, Switzerland submitted a provisional QELRO level range of 77.7-84.2 for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. This means that Switzerland’s average yearly emissions during the period of 2013-2020 are proposed to be between 77.7 and 84.2 % of 1990 levels.
Status
Official announcement
Date of pledge
August 2009
Source
Switzerland (2011) Switzerland's submission on reference levels as an accounting approach for forest management under the Kyoto Protocol
Switzerland (2010) Forest Management reference level provided in presentation to Forest management accounting pre-sessional workshop on 30 July 2010
Switzerland's pledge to the Copenhagen Accord
Switzerland (2009) Federal Act on the Reduction of CO2 Emissions (CO2 Act) and Switzerland (2009) Joint submission by Australia, Belarus, Canada, Croatia, the European Community and its Member States, Iceland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Russian Federation, Switzerland, Ukraine Information relating to possible quantified emissions limitation and reduction objectives as submitted by Parties, Submission to the AWG-LCA and AWG-KP, 9 October 2009
Switzerland (2009) Submission on Possible Options for Consideration Relating to Land-Use, Land-use Change and Forestry, 16 February 2009, FCCC/KP/AWG/2009/MISC.5
Assumptions
Targets for 2020 were calculated from the most recent national inventory submissions (2012).
We calculated Switzerland's LULUCF accounting quantities in 2020 for afforestation, reforestation and deforestation using the current Kyoto rules and for forest management using a net-net approach with a projected reference level for 2013-2020. Switzerland has excluded emissions from extreme events in calculating their reference level.
