View looking north over Vals, Switzerland, author Archipreneur, attribution license, source https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vals_switzerland_pan_archipreneur.jpg

Swiss Voters Reject New Climate Taxes

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to the BBC, “Voter rejection undermines Switzerland’s entire strategy to comply with the Paris Agreement. Today’s results are a devastating blow for environmentalists.”.

Swiss voters reject key climate change measures

Switzerland’s policy on fighting climate change has been thrown into doubt after voters rejected key measures in a popular vote.

A referendum saw voters narrowly reject the government’s plans for a car fuel levy and a tax on air tickets. 

The measures were designed to help Switzerland meet targets under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Many voters appear to have worried about the impact on the economy as the country tries to recover from Covid-19.

Opponents also pointed out that Switzerland is responsible for only 0.1% of global emissions, and expressed doubts that such policies would help the environment. 

The vote, under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, went 51% against, 49% in favour.

Voter rejection undermines Switzerland’s entire strategy to comply with the Paris Agreement. Today’s results are a devastating blow for environmentalists.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57457384

The impudence of those Swiss peasants voters, upsetting the carefully orchestrated plans of their leaders.

No doubt a vigorous public climate propaganda campaign is already on the launchpad, to ensure voters don’t cause international embarrassment next time they are offered the opportunity to agree with their government.

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June 14, 2021 12:20 pm

I had the misfortune to see the BBC’s formulaic report on this last night. The reporter had just the right blend of concern and exasperation in his voice as he claimed that “Switzerland is warming twice as fast as anywhere else”, “the glaciers will be gone by the end of the century” and that it was a disaster for the rest of the planet etc etc, whilst showing stock footage of backlit cooling towers and steam vents. Nauseating propaganda, as usual.

Reply to  Right-Handed Shark
June 14, 2021 3:30 pm

Fcuk me, everywhere’s warming twice as fast as anywhere else. Nothing new here. Get a grip Baghdad Bob Corporation.

Dave Andrews
Reply to  philincalifornia
June 15, 2021 6:43 am

Not quite everywhere as according to a recent report in the Guardian the Arctic is warming THREE times faster than anywhere else.

Reply to  Right-Handed Shark
June 15, 2021 9:10 am

“Switzerland is warming twice as fast as anywhere else”

So it’s NOT global?

June 14, 2021 12:22 pm

The Swiss appreciate the “Global Milding” plus they have heard their family word-of-mouth stories about the glaciers advancing in the 1800’s…..

June 14, 2021 12:32 pm

An island of sanity in a sea of suicidal psychosis.

Eric Harpham
June 14, 2021 12:55 pm

Slightly off topic but possibly still relevant. Ian Botham, a famous England Cricketer for all of you on the other side of the pond, has asked Drax power station, which burns 25,000,000 American trees every year and calls it green energy, to provide proof of their claim to be replanting the same number of trees.

Should be interesting to see the response. Watch this space..

griff
Reply to  Eric Harpham
June 14, 2021 2:37 pm

Every green and environmental group in the UK has been campaigning to shut Drax for years. I’m glad Botham is finally joining them…

Green groups dispute power station claim that biomass is carbon-neutral | Drax | The Guardian

Reply to  griff
June 14, 2021 3:22 pm

Close the Bio part or the coal part, or both ?

ResourceGuy
Reply to  griff
June 14, 2021 5:10 pm

I guess you missed the news that Drax Group is expanding to ship and burn even more trees and use fossil fuels in the shipping and loading.

Lrp
Reply to  griff
June 14, 2021 7:24 pm

Stop lying!

observa
Reply to  Lrp
June 14, 2021 7:53 pm

griff is right for once though. Even rabid watermelons can’t stomach Drax extreme greenwashing and subsidy mining for no discernible outcome. That doesn’t mean they have wherewithal to see the same equation in all their other hair brained schemes. Running the world on wood chips and batteries is pretty much par for their course.

Reply to  griff
June 14, 2021 10:16 pm

Griff, mate

It was your lot that campaigned for Drax to switch to shipping wood across the Atlantic and burn it in the first place.

How about an apology for your part in that folly?

ResourceGuy
June 14, 2021 1:06 pm

Would they be willing to sponsor a climate policy refugee with ample income but with recurring bouts of climate policy dread and PTSD from exposure to John Kerry and Al Gore?.

AGW is Not Science
June 14, 2021 1:14 pm

It’s truly depressing that the vote was anywhere near that close. I thought the Swiss were more intelligent, and they’ll probably lose this tenuous grip on sanity as the next wave of the young and gullible reaches voting age.

Bill
June 14, 2021 1:42 pm

We know darned well that with such a close vote the global Marxists (aka China, U.S. Democrats, Soros, etc) will simply buy the 2% it needs to turn a democracy into another Marxist state.

June 14, 2021 2:03 pm

Absolutely wonderful, the Swiss people defeated the enviro-maniacs.
Next vote should be at least 67 to 33

A totally futile “holy grail/tilting at windmill” quest.
The sooner it is ended, the better

Just imagine an EV on a mountain road in winter. The range would be bull s…

The only measure that makes any sense is minimize energy use by means of highly efficient apartment buildings, such as

  • net zero energy
  • energy surplus
  • off the grid buildings

The off the grid buildings should have enough solar panels, WITH MANDATED ELECTRICAL STORAGE so they would also power EVs, etc.,

ResourceGuy
June 14, 2021 2:48 pm

Do they take climate policy refugees?

ResourceGuy
June 14, 2021 2:54 pm
June 14, 2021 3:38 pm

Oh, don’t sell short the creativity of the climate crackpots. I feel a peer-reviewed paper is in the making, something along the lines of, “Climate Change Causes People to Vote ‘No’ When ‘Yes’ Was Intended. The vote must be adjusted to account for the phenomena, and when you do, oh look, the measure actually passed!

June 14, 2021 4:36 pm

“devastating blow for environmentalists”.
The environment and rational people all let out a collective sigh of relief though.

Reply to  Chris Nisbet
June 14, 2021 6:33 pm

Ha ha yes “devastating blow for phony-environmentalists and their bank accounts”.

…… leaving more funds for the Swiss to be stewards of their environment.

Edward Katz
June 14, 2021 6:16 pm

It’s the old story: many people maintain that something has to be done about the climate as long as it doesn’t cost them any time, money or inconvenience. This is one of the many reasons that Net-Zero is unlikely to be reached.

Reply to  Edward Katz
June 14, 2021 7:38 pm

unlikely …. ?

The climate crackpots haven’t even got the talking part done yet.

John
June 14, 2021 10:05 pm

Hurray for the Swiss
They dont have the Scandanavian disease
I now have put Switerland back on my travel destinations

June 14, 2021 10:07 pm

Look at the heading photograph, the Swiss should know that there is no CO2 induced global warming in that environment. If they stand out in a Sun-lit area, they feel warmed by the Sunshine. Touch objects around them and they will be warm, also heated by the Sunshine. Stand in the shadow of a mountain peak and they feel the local ambient air temperature. Touch objects in the shaded area and they will be the same or colder than the air temperature. Why ? Because there is no back-radiation from the sky above to heat the ground.
The Greenhouse Effect is a hoax. Walk outside and test the temperature difference between the Sun-heated surrounds and within the shaded areas that are not warmed by Greenhouse-heating sky above because there is no Greenhouse effect.

June 14, 2021 10:16 pm

Switzerland will soon be canceled

June 14, 2021 10:24 pm

IIRC, in a referendum, the Irish people originally said no to joining the Euro.

They were then told to go back and vote again until they got the right answer.

Just saying

Kevinkevin
June 14, 2021 11:48 pm

In the referendum, voters rejected the government’s plans for taxes on car fuel and air tickets. These measures are designed to help Switzerland achieve the climate change goals of the Paris Agreement. Actually, many industries are doing their bit to address the cliamte change. Carmakers like Toyota are among them.

June 15, 2021 1:20 am

There is more to the story. On May29 Switzerland abruptly stopped EU negotiations running since 2014. This is the reason, as constitutional changes were demanded by Brussels.
Swiss Pull Out of EU Negotiations, May Vote Against CO2 Legislation (larouchepub.com)
Swiss Vote No to Climate Suicide (larouchepub.com)
You can hear the echoes, “No, there is a limit to a tyrant’s power…” from the Rütli Oath in Wilhelm Tell, by Friedrich Schiller.
Now on to cancel B3W and the 30×30 mad schemes….

Davey Duff
June 15, 2021 2:46 am

The Swiss don’t swallow the crap they’re fed by the media as much as some.

June 15, 2021 3:28 am

I’m so happy it didn’t get through. They will however try to misinterpret the vote like:
It didn’t pass because many people think the measures didn’t go far enough… A judge also
fell the decision, that international treaties are above the Swiss Constitution, thus above the
vox populi.. So maybe they will just ignore this result…
We recently voted (with 64.5% majority) against an E-ID which they’ve already “misinterpreted” and now they’re bringing in the E-ID through the back door (the EU wants it, so we must have it too…). Democracy seems to be the hardest word…

SF jeff
Reply to  Eric Vieira
June 15, 2021 7:26 am

And I thought that only happened in California>

Bruce Cobb
June 15, 2021 3:40 am

What we have here is failure to communicate.

SF jeff
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
June 15, 2021 7:26 am

Can you eat 50 eggs?

ozspeaksup
June 15, 2021 4:46 am

crazy 49% would have agreed to it

Przemysław Abramowski
June 15, 2021 5:16 am

Swiss have always been and are independent. Have a family there (they’re leftists). Didn’t bow before Hitler, are not bowing before EU. Long live the Swiss 🙂

June 15, 2021 5:27 am

Many, many politicians are going to rue their acceptance and robbing citizens via taxes. When the rubber hits the road in serious fashion with renewable land use, upgrading home electrical service for charging stations, limited travel opportunities due to limited range autos, and on and on, the voters will solve the problems.