Building bridges across ideological boundaries – Newsletter November 2023
23.11.2023
Dear members, partners, and friends,
Next month, the newly elected Swiss parliament will meet for its first sessions. This, as we know, with some changes in party strengths, in particular more seats for the SVP/UDC and fewer for the Green Party and the Green Liberal Party.
What does this mean for sustainable development in Switzerland? Purely ecological concerns (SDG 15 Live on Land) may have a harder time. But the SDGs are about much more than pure ecology. For example, climate change (SDG 13) has long been recognized as an economic factor – in Switzerland, agriculture and tourism, in particular, are feeling the consequences of the increasingly extreme weather events. The Climate Change Act was passed in June with the official support of both the Swiss Farmers' Association and Economiesuisse. The vote showed that sustainable development is not about party politics.
We have been reconfirmed in our approach to promote cross-party solutions through the cross-party group on the SDGs. A concrete example of this is an interpellation submitted in August in the Council of States from the chair of the cross-party group on the SDGs: Adèle Thorens (Green Party), Josef Dittli (FDP/PLR), and Eva Herzog (SP/PS) are proposing an official legal standard to support sustainable companies. Our support for this initiative, led by our partner B-LAB Switzerland and the newly founded Alliance for Sustainable Entreprises, also shows how we can bundle our limited resources successfully to drive change together. It is a prime example of how we are stronger together as a network.
At SDSN Switzerland, we are convinced that the best solutions are found in dialogue across ideological boundaries. But this only works if there is an understanding of the big picture, for example, the relations between an intact biosphere and healthy people, or those between planetary boundaries, security at global and national levels, and a stable economy.
Therefore, we consider dialogue and knowledge transfer to be more important than ever. With this in mind, we are pleased to present here some of the activities of the past months from our network.
Building bridges across ideological boundaries – Newsletter November 2023
Kind regards,
Carole Küng, Co-Director SDSN Switzerland
Next month, the newly elected Swiss parliament will meet for its first sessions. This, as we know, with some changes in party strengths, in particular more seats for the SVP/UDC and fewer for the Green Party and the Green Liberal Party.
What does this mean for sustainable development in Switzerland? Purely ecological concerns (SDG 15 Live on Land) may have a harder time. But the SDGs are about much more than pure ecology. For example, climate change (SDG 13) has long been recognized as an economic factor – in Switzerland, agriculture and tourism, in particular, are feeling the consequences of the increasingly extreme weather events. The Climate Change Act was passed in June with the official support of both the Swiss Farmers' Association and Economiesuisse. The vote showed that sustainable development is not about party politics.
We have been reconfirmed in our approach to promote cross-party solutions through the cross-party group on the SDGs. A concrete example of this is an interpellation submitted in August in the Council of States from the chair of the cross-party group on the SDGs: Adèle Thorens (Green Party), Josef Dittli (FDP/PLR), and Eva Herzog (SP/PS) are proposing an official legal standard to support sustainable companies. Our support for this initiative, led by our partner B-LAB Switzerland and the newly founded Alliance for Sustainable Entreprises, also shows how we can bundle our limited resources successfully to drive change together. It is a prime example of how we are stronger together as a network.
At SDSN Switzerland, we are convinced that the best solutions are found in dialogue across ideological boundaries. But this only works if there is an understanding of the big picture, for example, the relations between an intact biosphere and healthy people, or those between planetary boundaries, security at global and national levels, and a stable economy.
Therefore, we consider dialogue and knowledge transfer to be more important than ever. With this in mind, we are pleased to present here some of the activities of the past months from our network.
Building bridges across ideological boundaries – Newsletter November 2023
Kind regards,
Carole Küng, Co-Director SDSN Switzerland