Issue Brief Topic: What environmental policies has Switzerland put in place in order to be considered one of the cleanest countries in the world?

The issue I plan to address in my brief is climate change. It’s a policy intervention because it will be focusing specifically on policies implemented in a relatively clean country, Switzerland, and how countries like the United States could utilize those same policies to make the country, and more broadly, the world, cleaner.

The exigence and rhetorical situation comes from the growing concern over climate change, and how quickly we are reaching the point of no return. This past winter was the second-warmest on record, and severe weather in the United States such as hurricanes and tornadoes have recently seen an uptick, which has been blamed on climate change. There are also cities and towns globally that will be overtaken by rising sea levels within a few years. This brief will look at ways in which countries could follow Switzerland’s model of success and mitigate the damage being caused to the environment.

My issue, climate change, could probably be argued to fall under each cause, but I believe intentional and inadvertent could have the strongest cases made. Climate change began as an inadvertent cause. No one during the industrial revolution said to themselves: “yes, let’s do that because within a few hundred years it will destroy the planet”. No one was thinking of climate change until it was already happening and research was conducted. At that point, the cause changed to intentional. Once governments became aware of the issue, few did little to combat it, exacerbating the problem, and bringing it to the high level of concern it garners today. For example, the current presidential administration has reversed policy that previously made companies greener.

The policy I plan to craft will closely follow that of which is conducted in Switzerland, modified in a way that could actually be enacted in the United States. That being said, I am sure I will use each of the four policy types. Mandates will have a great deal of importance, as companies and individuals who do not take climate change seriously will be forced to under the law. Capacity Builders are another that is particularly valuable. A lot of Americans are uniformed regarding climate change, or think it’s fake. Education would help combat this, and hopefully foster better habits. Finally system changes would definitely be needed. In order to mitigate America’s damage to the environment, sweeping changes would need to be made at almost every level regarding waste and c02 output levels.