Federal popular initiative "for more humane vehicles"
The federal popular initiative “for more human-friendly vehicles” is a popular initiative that was submitted by the initiative committee for human-friendly vehicles on February 9, 2008 with 123,670 valid signatures. It demands that motor vehicles that pollute the environment above average are no longer approved for new purchases in Switzerland. For the regulation of the approval limit values with regard to harmful emissions and traffic safety are defined. Since off- roaders are particularly often inadequate with regard to these standards , the initiative is also known as the stop off-roader initiative .
The sponsor and initiator is the association for more humane vehicles . Well represented in the referendum campaign and the Initiative Committee is the young party Young Green , including their National Bastien Girod .
Positions
Federal Council
The Federal Council announced in its first press release on 19 December 2008 to reject the initiative. The reason for the rejection are the overwhelming disadvantages and the fact that most of the initiative's goals in terms of road safety and pollutant emissions can be achieved without the request. The Federal Council fears that the vehicle selection of passenger car models registered on the European market will decrease significantly. He is also of the opinion that any reduction in emissions is worth striving for, but that there are difficulties in implementing the initiative. The concerns of the initiators have largely been met by the internationally agreed limit values and standards that apply in Switzerland, and these are constantly being tightened, according to the Federal Council.
Positions of the initiative committee
The committee requests the Federal Council to disclose the assumptions and figures for what it believes to be false statements. Because the measures that the initiative calls for would allow a reduction in CO 2 emissions of 30 percent by 2020 , especially in the medium term and in combination with a bonus-malus, which further drives technological progress . With an additional incentive to replace old, inefficient vehicles and curbing the increase in motorized vehicles, a total reduction of 40 percent could be achieved, which would be necessary to pursue a climate policy that would cause dangerous warming (more than 2 ° C on the global average). prevented.
The initiators also accuse the Federal Council of having reasons that, in their opinion, speak in favor of the initiative, such as the ongoing trend towards rearmament on the road, the large number of excessively large vehicles, the failure to meet the climate targets in the area of fuels, the failure to comply with the voluntarily agreed target with the car importers, which in comparison to the EU is 20 percent more inefficient vehicle fleet in Switzerland, the dilution of the EU CO 2 limit values for passenger cars.
The initiative
The initiative calls on the federal government to adopt measures that improve road safety and reduce environmental pollution. Specifically, only motor vehicles that meet certain safety and environmental standards are to be sold in Switzerland. In the initiative's transitional provisions, the standards are defined as follows:
- Emission limit values
- safety limit values
- maximum 2.2 t empty weight
- no dangerous front section
The environmental standards must be adapted to technical progress.
If for certain purposes, namely in forestry and agriculture, vehicles are indispensable which do not meet these criteria, exceptions should be possible, the competence for this would lie with the federal government.
In order to prevent incentives for “hamster purchases” and uncontrolled foreign imports, the initiative is calling for the maximum speed to be limited to 100 km / h for vehicles that do not meet the required standards.
The initiative in a European context
CO 2 limit
The European Commission requires the automotive industry to reduce the average CO 2 emissions from new cars sold in the EU to 120 g CO 2 / km by 2012 . In this respect, the EU also intends to reduce CO 2 emissions from passenger cars. In the opinion of the initiators, however, a Swiss limit value remains sensible because passenger cars are also imported into Switzerland from other countries.
Particulate law for diesel vehicles
Particle filters for diesel vehicles are mandatory in the EU from 2009, but with the EURO 5 emissions standard, the tolerated particle mass is higher than that aimed at by the initiative “for more human-friendly vehicles”.
Traffic safety
The road safety of passenger cars is assessed by the Euro NCAP crash test program , which, for the initiators, represents a possible basis for assessing the risk potential of the front end of a vehicle to people.
Counter proposal
In the spring of 2011, the parliament accepted the counter-proposal to the popular initiative. The initiative committee then withdrew the initiative conditionally. When there was no referendum against the counter-proposal, it finally withdrew the initiative.
Web links
- Full text of the initiative on the Federal Administration's website
- The initiative on Parliament's website
Individual evidence
- ↑ admin.ch: Creation, announcement of the departments and offices (PDF; 482 kB)
- ↑ admin.ch: Federal Council rejects the “Offroader Initiative” from December 19, 2008
- ^ Année politique Suisse 2011 - Preservation of the environment. Accessed December 1, 2019 .
- ↑ 10.017 Business of the Federal Council For more humane vehicles. Popular initiative. CO2 law. Revision. In: parlament.ch. Accessed December 1, 2019 .
- ^ Federal Chancellery BK: Political Rights. Accessed December 1, 2019 .