🇨🇭 Switzerland leading the way, again: >€100m for CCS/CDR 🇨🇭

🧐 My feed has been filling up with posts on Switzerland - rightly so. Let’s recap what happened and put it into the broader picture of Swiss climate policy.

💰 Switzerland has set aside 1.2b CHF (€1.3b) over 6 years to finance the green transition of industry. Of this, 100m CHF (€106m) were now made available specifically for carbon capture and storage (hashtag#CCS) from fossil sources and carbon dioxide removal (hashtag#CDR) from biogenic sources.

The details:

✅ Projects need to capture at least 5Kt/CO2 annually

✅ Use only fossil-free energy sources

✅ Ensure permanent CO2 storage

😮 In return, they can expect up to 50% of the project’s CAPEX and OPEX costs covered over seven years. Proposals are due on April 25th with decisions expected in December.

😑 The catch: only DACCS and BECCS projects are eligible, an unfortunately recurring theme in otherwise very progressive Swiss CDR policy.

🎯 In addition, the government also released guidance for Swiss companies - who are already legally obliged to hit net-zero by 2050 - on how to develop intermediate CDR targets for 2030, 2035, 2040, and 2045.

💪 Looking at the broader context, Switzerland has a national 2050 net-zero target and has gone as far as defining the exact amount of CDR it will need - 7Mt - and how much it will need to procure from abroad - 5Mt.

🤝 To achieve this, it has already struck 12 bilateral agreements with other governments under Article 6 - more than any other country in the world - and is pioneering the trade of permanent CDR ITMOs with Norway.

🤔 One thing to note: Switzerland defines permanence as 30 years, arguably way too low and something that many, including Swiss scientists, argued should be raised.

👏 Overall, the news is a breath of fresh air in otherwise fairly turbulent times for the sector.

❓ What is your take? Can this small European country lead the way and inspire others to follow suit?

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