“The Federal Council shall assess the state of the environment
in Switzerland at least every four years and
shall submit a report on the results to the Federal
Assembly.” This sentence was added to Switzerland’s
Environmental Protection Act (EPA) in 2014 due to the
ratification of the Aarhus Convention.
The “Environment Switzerland” reports fulfil the mandate
of providing information and reporting in simple
and clear terms on the state and development of the
environment. By disclosing the need for action, the
reports also provide pointers for the development of
future environmental policy and highlight synergies
with other sectoral policies.
The “Environment Switzerland 2018” report provides
objective and factual information about the state of
the environment and environmental impacts. With
this report, the Federal Council publishes a substantiated
overview that is intended to provide an important
basis for the future design of environmental policy
and for other environmentally relevant policy areas.
