Summer Quarterly 2017
On May 21, over 58% of voters in a Swiss referendum chose renewable energy over new nuclear power production. The vote paves the way for the country to move ahead with its clean power plan—focused on solar, wind, and hydro electricity—starting in January 2018. Regula Rytz, president of Switzerland’s Green party, called the May vote a “moment of historic change,” and “absolutely magnificent.” The Swiss government first proposed the phase-out of nuclear in favor of renewable energy sources in 2011, following Fukushima’s three-reactor disaster in Japan. Earlier in May, the Swiss government also drafted a law that would increase provisions for protecting the population in the event of a reactor accident.
—BBC, May 21; The Local (Switzerland), June 2, 2017