SWISS ETS
The Emission Trading System of the Swiss Confederation, as established by the Swiss Federal Act on the Reduction of CO2 Emissions of 23 December 2011. It has been linked to the EU ETS by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systems of 5 November 2020.
The Switzerland (Swiss) ETS started in 2008 with a five-year voluntary phase. Thereafter, participation was mandatory for large, energy-intensive entities and voluntary for medium-sized entities. The Swiss ETS covered about 12% of the country’s total GHG emissions in 2020. Participants in the ETS are exempt from the national CO2 levy.
The Swiss ETS covers electricity generation, industrial entities (largely comprising companies from the cement, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper, refining, and steel sectors), domestic aviation, flights to the European Economic Area, and from 2023 flights to the UK. Allowances are allocated through benchmarking and auctioning. The same benchmarks as in the EU ETS apply to entities covered by the Swiss ETS.
