Switzerland's greatest challenge will be to succeed in combining these three societal objectives: climate action, energy security and ecological integrity.
Developing renewable energy while preserving biodiversity is a fundamental challenge at a time when Switzerland is embarking on the construction of alpine solar parks. Between June 2023 and September 2024, supported by the Center for Climate Impact and Action of UNIL & EPFL (CLIMACT), a group of researchers, including experts in climate, renewable energy and biodiversity, set out to review all the scientific literature published on these topics. Their goal was to determine how to combine these three key societal objectives: climate action, energy security and ecological integrity.
The five key points of this report, called “Accelerating renewable energy development while enhancing biodiversity protection in Switzerland” :
In conclusion, CLIMACT experts believe that it will not be enough to minimize the impacts of new sources of sustainable energy, but that it will also be necessary to reduce the harmful effects of existing human activities and infrastructure. “This implies stopping and reversing the most damaging activities, and undertaking ecological restoration in order to achieve a net gain for biodiversity and thus mitigate climate change.”
EDITORS
Sascha Nick, Antoine Guisan, Alejandra Morán-Ordóñez and Christophe Ballif
LEAD AUTHORS
Sascha Nick, Caroline Martin, Antoine Guisan, Yohann Chauvier-Mendes, Christophe Ballif, Franz-Josef Haug, Alejandra Morán-Ordóñez, Laura
Ferrarello and Valérie Dupont
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