Some government departments and 13 other Swiss entities have signed a pact to increase energy efficiency, expand renewable energies and make their investments “climate compatible”. The initiative contributes to implementing Switzerland’s Energ...

There will be no general obligation to show a Covid certificate in Swiss ski resorts this winter, the Swiss ski lift organisation Seilbahnen Schweiz said on Tuesday. However, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) then cast some doubt on this. ...

Driven by chemicals and pharmaceuticals, Swiss exports reached a new all-time high of CHF63.11 billion ($69 billion) in the third quarter of this year, according to the Federal Customs Administration (FCA). This represents an increase of 3.7% over t...

Swiss glaciers this year recorded their lowest ice loss since 2013, but still lost 1% of their volume due to climate change, according to the Swiss Academy of Sciences. This is despite abundant snow in the winter and a relatively cool summer in 2021...

The Alpine nation is again top for expatriates in British bank HSBC’s annual expat survey, thanks in part to its high quality of life amid pandemic travel restrictions. The ranking, published on Tuesday, puts Switzerland top for the third year in ...

Switzerland’s medical regulator has said it expects to give the green light for the third Covid-19 jab in a matter of weeks. This comes amid growing concerns about a rising number of infections and deaths among vaccinated individuals. In an interv...

Swiss Youth for Climate (SYFC) wants to see a clear commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees at the upcoming COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland. The advocacy group is demanding climate policies that aim higher and deliver results fast...

Switzerland and Georgia signed an agreement in Bern on Monday on climate protection. It is intended to develop a national programme to promote the energy efficiency of buildings in the Caucasus country. "Well-insulated houses and efficient heating s...

Foreigners and non-German speaking Swiss citizens are particularly affected by feelings of social exclusion, according to a University of Zurich study. The study, cited by Keystone-SDA news agency on Monday, found that as many as one in five Swiss r...

An independent report into claims of violations of asylum-seekers’ rights at federal asylum centres concludes that, although there were a few instances in which security staff had reacted disproportionately, any accusation of torture was “unjusti...

The heirs of Switzerland’s pharmaceutical company Roche are ending an era as philanthropic donors for major nature conservation projects, the NZZ am Sonntag reported. Their Mava Foundation, established 25 years ago, will shut down next year. "The ...

Unlike other Western European nations, Switzerland is not at risk of a supply chain crisis due to a lack of truck drivers, according to the president of a major logistics and transport company. "The situation in Switzerland is significantly better t...

The Swiss government has shared its vision for coping with major power outages in a brochure shared with thousands of companies, the weekly NZZ am Sonntag reported on Sunday. In the absence of an electricity agreement with the European Union, such a ...

Several Swiss cities witnessed demonstrations against the government's Covid-19 policy on Saturday, notably the recent imposition of a Covid certificate requirement to enter indoor areas like restaurants. Between 800 and 1,000 people took to the str...

Switzerland-based commodities trader Glencore has started talks with Chad over the restructuring of the nation’s more than CHF1 billion ($1.1 billion) commercial debt, Reuters news agency reported on Saturday, citing a letter from the company to th...

Everyone has a unique brainprint but - unlike fingerprints - it can change over time, according to a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). This finding, which was detailed in an Oct. 15 study published by Sc...

Switzerland’s Covid app went offline for an hour late Friday due to technical issues, Keystone-SDA reported. The glitch also affected the operation of EU-issued Covid certificates in Swiss territory. The Swiss digital health certificate could not ...

Tunnellers digging from two ends of a new tunnel in Geneva met up on Friday as part of an ambitious project to improve transport. Some 60 workers have been relaying each other since September 2017 to dig the 500-metre tunnel for an underground road ...

Participants in often violent, unauthorised weekly protests in Bern against Covid measures will now have to pay for the cost of police operations, Swiss broadcaster SRF reported on Friday. "We have now had almost a dozen unauthorised rallies in the ...

Swiss hoteliers and restaurateurs have seen turnover drop by an average of 27.6% since the introduction of the Covid certificate in mid-September, according to a survey of the sector. Some 81.3% of surveyed establishments reported a downturn in busi...

Salome Zourabichvili met Swiss President Guy Parmelin and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis on Friday to talk about climate change, economic ties and security in the Caucasus. The visit to Bern was the first by a Georgian president since the country b...

The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) says a cooperation agreement on wood research with Canada’s University of British Columbia will help promote new, sustainable bioproducts. The Canadian university’s BioPr...

Researchers behind an algorithm to measure how scenic a region is say it could have benefits for environmental and conservation efforts. The research by the Swiss Federal Technology Institute Lausanne EPFL and Wageningen University in the Netherland...

Swiss private banks managed to increase their assets under management to CHF2.9 trillion ($3.15 trillion) last year, an increase of 2.8% on 2019. “The year 2020 was dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, yet the Swiss private banking sector still got...

Switzerland will need at least a year to gain domestic approval for new tax measures to conform with a 15% global minimum corporate tax rate, according to Guy Parmelin, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year. The Swiss finance ministry ca...

The number of cancer patients in Switzerland is increasing, mainly due to the ageing population. But the risk of dying from the disease has decreased for both men and women. Some 23,100 men and 19,650 women were diagnosed with cancer every year betw...

World Cup events for snow sports will again be open to spectators in Switzerland. Access for the 2021-2022 season will be restricted to people with a Covid certificate. “The primary objective of Swiss-Ski and the Swiss World Cup organisers – in ...

The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) has launched a centralised platform to collect genetic sequences of the new coronavirus in Switzerland to ensure better monitoring of variants and boost international research efforts. The Swiss Pathogen S...

Switzerland will host two of the 21 stages of the 2022 Tour de France, it has been confirmed. At a presentation of the route for the 2022 edition, officials said on Thursday that stage eight (July 9) would see riders leave Dole in the French Jura re...

The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the mood of people in Switzerland: only 30% are still unconditionally optimistic about the future, a third less than last year, according to a survey by insurer Swiss Life. The proportion of people who often feel s...