Dear Minister Aasland, distinguished colleagues, dear participants

Global warming is progressing: In Switzerland, glaciers melted faster than ever during this year's hot summer, and in other parts of the world, people and nature are suffering from droughts and floods. Therefore we must urgently do what science is very clear about: reduce emissions as quickly as possible. Last week, I joined many other countries at COP27 in Egypt to hold on to this most important goal. We must not be satisfied with the result, and we will continue to work for it.

At the national level, Switzerland is working to expand renewable energies quickly and on a large scale. Our dangerous dependence on fossil energies is a threat to our energy supply, as Putin's energy war against Europe shows. And one thing is clear as well: if we invest in domestic energy from the sun, water, wind and biomass, this is the best climate protection.

But apart from that, Switzerland is open to other methods that serve climate protection. We know that some emissions will be very difficult to avoid. We should therefore rapidly develop technologies to capture, remove and store permanently these remaining emissions.

Without these technologies, our goal of net-zero emission by 2050 will be virtually impossible to achieve. Despite its ambitious reduction plans, Switzerland will likely still emit twelve million tonnes of CO2equivalents - every year - by 2050. These emissions mainly come from waste incineration plants, the cement industry and agriculture.

Indeed, many Swiss stakeholders from the waste and cement sector are participating in this meeting today, including the directors of the associations. I am very glad to see such active interest and commitment. I am equally pleased to see the technology providers at the table, including two Swiss companies - Climeworks and neustark - leading worldwide on removal and innovative storing technologies. And I am very pleased to see Swiss stakeholders who are ready to invest in early activities. Together, we can accelerate the urgently needed deployment of carbon capture, removal and storage.

The Swiss Government is committed to facilitating the development of these technologies. We incentivise such activities in Swiss climate legislation and sectoral agreements. And to foster the implementation of these technologies, we also financially support demonstration projects.

With this in mind, I am excited about the collaboration we have with the Norwegian Government. Norway is a global leader in in the field of carbon capture, removal and storage, and will likely open the first large-scale commercial CO2-storage site by 2024 already. I commend Norway for its visionary initiative and thank the Norwegian stakeholders present today for their efforts and interest in exploring collaboration with Swiss stakeholders. Together, we can make things move faster.

We have an opportunity at hand here: We have leading companies and universities at the table willing to find solutions and do business, and we have two governments - Norway and Switzerland - which want to be avantgarde in the field of carbon capture, removal and storage.

Let us talk,

explore,

learn from different views,

develop projects and deals

- but most importantly: Let's act!

Every contribution to climate protection is welcome and valuable!

Thank you!

Carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removals Stakeholder Event