European Union (EU) countries and Switzerland are implementing core climate policies for promoting energy transition towards decarbonized energy systems and climate neutrality. Alignment of policies and low-carbon infrastructures between EU countries and Switzerland are crucial to support the Swiss energy system’s transition, to boost the effectiveness of its transformation, and to alleviate concerns about potential distortions of competition.
POLIZERO addresses the topic of efficient policies for promoting energy transition towards a decarbonised Swiss energy system. POLIZERO evaluates a comprehensive inventory of policy measures in Switzerland and other EU countries, across all sectors of the energy system to identify robust policies and combinations of those that promote low-carbon solutions.
The specific research questions addressed in this project are:
• What are the efficient policies/ policy packages and their timing in Switzerland towards the target of net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050?
• What are the implications of energy and climate policies of other EU countries for the effectiveness of Swiss energy policies?
• Which are the most critical contextual influences and their respective values that could affect policy outcomes, efficiency, and efficacy?
• Which parameters should be monitored to ensure effective policy implementation, and which policy alternatives (if any) could be implemented to tackle policy outcome deviations?
To this end, POLIZERO employs a prospective quantitative analysis with an advanced EU energy system modelling framework (JRC-EU-TIMES) combined with a policy analysis tool (TEEM-AIM) to identify Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPPs) towards Switzerland’s deep decarbonization.
POLIZERO provides insights into the interdependencies of Swiss energy policies with the energy policies of other EU countries. It also identifies effective policy mixes implemented in other countries, their success factors, and lessons learnt for Switzerland.
Consequently, the outcome of this project contributes to the ongoing dialogue on the Energy transition in Switzerland, and how Switzerland can achieve its CO2 mitigation targets while being embedded in a European energy market, which also faces an ambitious transformation as stated in the European Green Deal.
Coordinated by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), and funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) , POLIZERO will take place until April 2023.
You can find more information about POLIZERO here.