Switzerland’s path to the net-zero target

Thomas Justus Schmidt, Head of PSI’s Energy and Environment research division. Image: Paul Scherrer Institute/Mahir Dzambegovic

2050 should be the end: The Federal Council has decided that by that date, Switzerland should stop emitting climate-harming greenhouse gases, such as CO₂. Despite this clearly defined goal, many questions remain unanswered, such as: Which pathways lead to the net-zero goal? How can we achieve societal acceptance? And what technological developments and legal framework are needed for the economy to develop viable business models? It is clear, however, that stakeholders in science, business, politics and society all need to work together closely to make use of available synergies, in order to reduce emissions rapidly and radically across all areas of application. At the same time, technologies that generate negative emissions must continue to be developed, in order to offset residual emissions that are difficult to avoid.

This is where the Swiss Centre of Excellence on Net-Zero Emissions, or SCENE for short, comes in. It channels the expertise of more than 30 research laboratories in the field of net-zero emissions and provides a platform for interdisciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration in the ETH Domain. All institutions within the ETH Domain are involved in the joint initiative: PSI as the Leading House, Empa, WSL, Eawag, ETH Zurich and EPFL. “Transforming the energy system and society will take decades – but we need to act quickly now and set the right course,” says Thomas J. Schmidt, head of the Energy and EnvironmentResearch Division at PSI and co-director of SCENE.

Björn Niesen, Managing Director of Empa’s Research Focus Area Energy, Resources and Emissions

Research can support the various stakeholder groups on the path to net-zero, but this calls for a broad collaboration across a wide range of disciplines. Björn Niesen from Empa, co-director of the consortium, explains how SCENE can contribute: “For example, research is being performed on the use of biomass for energy, and at the same time, research is being carried out on the use of wood as a construction material – but, until now, these two areas have not been closely interlinked.” In order to make better use of the potential offered by native forests, such thought silos need to be broken down, says Niesen: “We want to build bridges between the individual disciplines and areas of application.” In the above example, this could be achieved through cascading the use of wood, first using it in the building sector and only afterwards using it for the production of electricity and heat.