Swiss voters took part in referenda Sunday on a new climate protection law and higher corporate taxes, with polls indicating that both measures will pass.
Parliament already passed the climate law, which aims to make Switzerland climate neutral by 2050 and reduce the impact on the country’s iconic glaciers, which are melting away at an alarming rate.
But the right-wing conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) has refused to back it, arguing that cutting climate-damaging emissions by 75% by 2050, compared to 1990, would cause energy prices to explode.
SVP leader Marco Chiesa last month criticized the “utopian” vision behind the bill, maintaining it would drive up energy costs by 400 billion Swiss francs (€447 billion, €4.08 billion) while having basically “no impact” on the global climate.
The SVP collected sufficient signatures to force the referendum vote under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy.
Backers of the plan argue that Switzerland will be hard-hit by climate change and is already seeing the effects of rising temperatures in the Alps.
Swiss glaciers experienced record melting last year, losing more than 6% of their volume and alarming scientists who say a loss of 2% would once have been considered extreme.
Opinion polls indicate strong support for the proposed law, the most recent by pollster gfs.bern put public backing at 63%.
The Swiss government is keen to promote the departure from fossil fuel use in heating with financial incentives.
Companies will also be supported to help them convert to climate-friendly technologies.
Over a period of 10 years, 3.2 billion Swiss francs are available for this purpose.
Switzerland still imports about three quarters of its energy and the need to transition has been made more urgent by unstable supplies from Russia due to the Ukraine war.
In an attempt to bring down that share, the government is planning to allow companies to build large solar panel parks in the Alps, along with more wind turbines.
Climate activists had initially wanted to push for a total ban on all oil and gas consumption in Switzerland by 2050.
But the government balked at the so-called Glacier Initiative, drawing up a counter-proposal that scrapped the idea of a ban but included other elements.
Meteorologists have warned that climate change to exacerbate natural disasters in the Alps and hurt tourism revenues.