Report on Global Environment Competitiveness of Switzerland

Switzerland is situated in western Europe, bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. The Swiss climate is generally temperate, but can vary greatly between the localities. It covers 40.0 thousand of square kilometers and has a population of 7.91 million. Its GDP reaches $659.31 billion in 2011. Through the index system and evaluation model, the environment competitiveness index of Switzerland ranks at 1 in 133 countries.

Score: 58.68

Rank: 1

1 Resource Environment Competitiveness

17.92

63

1.1 Land Resources

6.18

117

Land area per capita

0.89

110

Percentage of arable land to total land area

17.02

78

Arable land per capita

2.39

118

1.2 Water Resources

32.03

32

Surface water

14.44

20

Annual precipitation

53.79

30

Groundwater

8.96

70

Total internal renewable water resources

50.94

19

1.3 Forest Resources

30.30

64

Growing stock in forest and other wooded land

51.30

66

Proportion of land area covered by forest

36.44

58

Forest area per capita

1.10

83

1.4 Energy Resources

3.39

91

Fossil energy

0.00

64

Energy production

1.63

45

Proportion of combustible renewable and waste to total energy consumption

9.57

64

Net energy imports of the energy consumption

6.03

91

2 Ecological Environment Competitiveness

70.29

2

2.1 Biodiversity

58.99

33

Threatened fish species

95.75

24

Threatened mammal species

98.91

6

Threatened plant species

99.88

30

GEF benefits index for biodiversity

0.20

109

2.2 Ecological Safeguard

67.39

7

Terrestrial protected areas

67.39

15

Marine protected areas

N/A

N/A

2.3 Air Quality

80.94

20

Inhalable particles (PM10)

85.40

39

Particulate matter (PM2.5)

87.21

53

Index of indoor air pollution

100.00

1

Nitrogen oxides emission

68.50

39

Sulfur dioxide emission

40.93

19

3 Environment Carrying Competitiveness

74.68

7

3.1 Agricultural Carrying

81.11

8

Cereal yield per unit of arable land

64.47

13

Fertilizer consumption per unit of arable land

84.60

102

Annual freshwater withdrawals for agriculture per unit of arable land

99.82

30

3.2 Industrial Carrying

93.31

44

Net exports of goods as a percentage of GDP

77.51

84

Electric power consumption per unit of value added of industry

96.88

18

SO₂ emissions per unit of value added of industry

100.00

4

Annual freshwater withdrawals for industry per value added of industry

98.87

42

3.3 Energy Consumption

47.70

7

Energy consumption per unit of land area

98.60

114

Ratio of clean energy consumption

66.94

4

Elasticity of energy consumption

14.57

27

Elasticity of electric power consumption

10.69

65

3.4 Greenhouse Gas

64.08

49

Growth rate of CO₂ emissions

52.71

61

Growth rate of Methane emissions

59.81

56

CO₂ emissions per unit of land area

98.78

115

CO₂ emissions per unit of energy consumption

56.36

39

4 Environment Management Competitiveness

59.55

12

4.1 Environmental Governance

100.00

1

Agricultural chemicals regulation

100.00

1

Percentage of the rural population with access to an improved water source

100.00

1

Percentage of the urban population with access to an improved water source

100.00

1

4.2 Ecological Protection

42.17

34

Area of plantation and afforestation

0.22

73

Biome protect

98.10

19

Overfishing of fishing resources

N/A

N/A

4.3 Resource Utilization

42.28

39

Utilization rate of water resources

0.19

76

Percentage of total internal renewable water resources to total water resources

72.14

57

Percentage of agricultural land to total land area

45.06

83

Percentage of fossil fuel energy consumption to total energy consumption

51.73

33

5 Environment Harmony Competitiveness

70.96

30

5.1 Population and Environment

65.85

92

Percentage of population with access to Improved sanitation facilities

100.00

1

Motor vehicles per 1,000 people

30.86

119

Renewable internal freshwater resources per capita

6.18

50

SO₂ emissions per capita

98.82

27

CO₂ emissions per capita

84.84

88

Energy consumption per capita

74.66

98

5.2 Economy and Environment

76.07

2

Land resource utilization efficiency

4.81

5

Sulfur dioxide emissions per unit of GDP

99.96

2

Carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP

99.50

2

Energy consumption per unit of GDP

100.00

1

Resource Environment Competitiveness

14

0

2

3

7

2

Ecological Environment Competitiveness

11

3

4

4

0

0

Environment Carrying Competitiveness

15

4

3

3

2

3

Environment Management Competitiveness

10

3

1

3

3

0

Environment Harmony Competitiveness

10

5

1

1

2

1

Total

60

15

11

14

14

6