Pupils of French-speaking Switzerland, as promised last October, it’s now your turn to take part in the “Climate Pioneers” initiative! 

As from today, this project of Swisscom, Solar Impulse and myclimate is open to pupils in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Since its launch in September 2010, the initiative has allowed 2500 schoolchildren from the German-speaking part of Switzerland to carry out 140 climate-related projects.

The Marché-Neuf School in Bienne has already taken part in this initiative and will be followed by Lausanne, Belmont-sur-Lausanne and Porrentruy. For classes also wanting to do a project aimed at protecting the climate and to receive support in developing their ideas and putting them into practice, the foundation offers introductory lessons together with a range of learning materials.

Are you a pupil or a teacher from kindergarten upwards in the French-speaking part of Switzerland? Does this project interest you? Invite myclimate free into you class by sending an email to the following address: pionniers.duclimat@myclimate.org.

Bertrand and André are proud to be the promoters of this initiative and were delighted to reveal the projects for this year 2012 at the prize-giving ceremony. 

Aware of the very clear message from Solar Impulse in favour of technologies that can reduce our dependency on fossil energy, she had asked Bertrand to speak alongside her.

For him this was an opportunity to bring up the story about an exchange with his meteorologists during his round-the-world balloon trip and which describes so well the question of sustainability and the long-term vision. Very pleased with himself at having found an altitude where the winds were pushing him twice as fast as the team's calculations had suggested, his advisors replied ironically: "Do you prefer to fly very quickly in the wrong direction or more slowly in the right one?". "This is the question that governments should be asking now given the speed at which humanity is moving towards massive public debt, the depletion of natural resources and the pollution of our environment."

As Bertrand pointed out: "Today's pioneers should not limit themselves to being explorers who walk on the moon or who do trips round the world; they should be heads of state resolved to meet the even more ambitious challenge of improving the quality of life on this planet.

The report ends with a list of practical recommendations for governments and international institutions, such as the need to remove the many subsidies still given to fossil energy and to include the environmental costs in the prices of all products. "Lastly an official stance that a legal framework is essential to change certain types of behaviour", say Bertrand and André happy to have included this subject in their Energy Charter last year.

In line with a fast growing Cleantech business community, the Senate has made a decisive step towards a sustainable climate policy. With a clear 26:16 result, the Swiss regulatory framework shall include transparent levies and incentives to achieve a 20% CO2 reduction in Swiss carbon emissions by 2020 (based on 1990 levels). The framework includes measures for further emission reductions through international compensation.
 
Solar Impulse and swisscleantech, the Swiss business association representing the country's leading cleantech companies, together have made a substantial contribution to the outcome of this vote. As part of the swisscleantech climate policy campaign, Bertrand Piccard, Franziska Barmettler and I spent a final day of lobbying in Parliament last week. We met with Senators and told them that the global need to reduce carbon emission should primarily be seen as a strong economic opportunity for Switzerland - and that the current CO2 law plays an important part in setting the direction.
 
Even though we knew our task would not be easy, the day has proven to be a hugely positive experience. We felt that every one of the eleven Senators we met were aware of the seriousness of the issue, and understood the business potential opening up in line with the reduction efforts.
 
A big help was the support received from the Swiss business community, an effort led by Christian Zeyer and Christina Braun. In less than 5 weeks, swisscleantech assembled more than 200 companies to promote, with letters and ads, a future-proof Swiss CO2-Law - if only of the benefit of the business community. Among the supporters are the largest, most sustainable and successful Swiss firms, such as Coop, Swisscom, Microsoft, Migros, Roche, Bank Sarasin, Cisco, Unilever, Tetra Pak. Together they represent some 300'000 jobs.
 
One of the most powerful statements in the Senate's discussion was made by Konrad Graber, a member of CVP, representing the canton of Lucerne. In his function as President of the Swiss dairy market leader 'Emmi' he confirmed that his firm is perfectly able to achieve a 20% CO2 reduction by 2020 - and that he would be convinced that the country as a whole can achieve that as well. The Senators wisely also insisted on a tax on petrol - recognised to be the most efficient and effective regulatory measure for emission reductions in transport and logistics. But it is also regarded to be a political hot potato in an election year.
 
Since its foundation, swisscleantech promotes the '20/20 by 2020' CO2 emission reduction strategy. The 40% total reduction is compatible with the Cancun-agreed target of limiting global warming to 2-degrees. It shall be achieved through 20% national and 20% international measures. Swiss emission reduction should be pursued independent of other countries' efforts. With it, Switzerland would make clear demonstration that it wants to lead the world in terms of sustainable development. It would position itself as a Cleantech leader - in line our 'Cleantech Strategy Switzerland' published in October 2010, and the government's 'Cleantech Masterplan' published in November 2010. For swisscleantech, today's confirmation of the 20% national emission reduction sets the right basis for a further 20% target abroad. In view of the December COP-17 talks in Durban, timing is critical.
 
Today's decision has made it clear that Switzerland understands sustainable development. With partners like Solar Impulse (a Cleantech symbol, of which all of Switzerland is proud), swisscleantech is able to generate majority support for a lean, economically and ecologically sound political framework. For Switzerland to remain competitive on this front, continuous policy efforts will be needed. Next up is the National Assembly this summer. It shall confirm the Senate's decisions and clear out remaining differences before the law can come into force. Today has shown that aligning forces in Cleantech is achievable. A positive impulse indeed.

Nick Beglinger
President, swisscleantech

This gave us the idea to set up an educational programme with live personalised conferences from our multimedia centre in Payerne.

Imagine the scene: André and I before two cameras in an empty room, not really knowing how many classes are logged on to our web site at that moment. On a screen we have just got the video feedback from a class of children selected to put their questions to us.

In the end, pupils were following us from Canada, Morocco, France, Belgium and Switzerland going by the messages we received. A success for this first trial, and for us a way of increasing our presence, albeit virtual, to encourage kids to be more curious and also to become pioneers themselves in their own lives. And what a deluge of questions! From what Solar Impulse means to what the pilot ate, they asked about everything!

After this introduction, we intend to develop themes of a more targeted nature, in French, German and English, and we look forward eagerly to continuing this fledgling tradition with schools on other continents.

Bertrand

Educational Program

This opportunity came with a private Swiss preview in a Lausanne cinema of the splendid documentary made by Henri de Gerlache. The success of the invitation sent out by Elâ to all our supporters caught us by surprise: we were completely booked out within 4 hours of posting this on our website and making some spaces available for local radio listeners! What a great moment for André and me to share with friends and to remind people that the Solar Impulse message, written in the sky thanks to solar energy, is in fact aimed at the daily lives of everyone, their choices as consumers and their political decisions! We had 500 supporters there and now an equal number of additional ambassadors for new technologies that can be used to save energy and promote renewable energies. We must do it again soon, as we all had such an enjoyable time sharing our ideal.

Bertrand

So you can easily imagine how I felt when I received the invitation to address the Sustainable Development Committee of the French National Assembly on the 19th of January 2011.

For an hour and a half, taking the Solar Impulse night flight as an example, 60 deputies bombarded me with questions on the political and technological choices to be made for our society. This subject is currently high on the agenda in France as the government has just introduced a moratorium on support for solar energy. To my great delight, this spirited debate led on to the role of politicians and governments in pressing manufacturers to use CleanTech to reduce their impact on the environment while also creating prosperity. This approach leaves no place for divisions between left and right, and thank goodness for that.

I found the deputies of this committee open-minded, receptive and very welcoming, and I must say that I very much enjoyed my role as an ambassador for new technology. It was also very gratifying to hear one deputy conclude by saying: "A wind of change has blown over the Committee this morning". So if not solar we shall at least have wind!