08. September 2025
(CONNECT) The next ten years will be crucial to achieving Swiss net zero targets by 2050. This is the conclusion reached by a joint study conducted by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the University of Piraeus. To this end, researchers from the Swiss institute and the Greek university analyzed the impact of more than 2,000 EU initiatives between 2020 and 2024, as PSI writes in a press release.
The models developed in the POLIZERO project, which has been funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, indicate that fossil technologies must be replaced by sustainable alternatives as quickly as possible. In this phase, support measures can provide real impetus. From 2035 onwards, the focus will be on expanding the adoption of wind and bioenergy, the production of synthetic fuels and capturing CO2 from waste and industry. In this context, the researchers propose additional instruments such as emissions trading, legal requirements and regulations governing the export and use of CO2. Moreover, Switzerland should coordinate its own measures with targeted EU integration, the study suggests.
Three of the pathways identified by the study have a high probability of successfully reducing CO2 emissions to net zero by 2050. To begin with, all options will rely on subsidies, which will subsequently be reduced through greater alignment with the EU and regulatory measures. “It is crucial for achieving the net-zero target that Switzerland defines its long-term strategy now”, as Evangelos Panos from the PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences explains in the press release. However, this does not necessarily need to be “a perfect plan”, but should rather focus on “the ability to adapt and scale”, he adds. ce/hs
