Policy
What policies are in place? How ambitious are the climate targets? What regulations exist?
Scenarios
Exploring Energy Futures
Scenarios help us explore alternative futures for Switzerland’s energy system. They are not predictions, but structured representations of possible developments that allow researchers, policymakers and stakeholders to compare pathways, identify trade-offs and test decisions under uncertainty.
Multiple futures
Uncertainty
The future is uncertain. Scenarios explore different ways the energy system could evolve under alternative assumptions about technology, policy, society and markets.
Understanding trade-offs
Decision support
Scenarios help identify the consequences of different choices, revealing opportunities, risks and system-wide impacts.
Supporting decisions
Stakeholders
By comparing pathways, scenarios provide evidence that can support policy design, strategic planning and research.
Scenarios help us explore alternative futures for Switzerland’s energy system. They are not predictions, but structured representations of possible developments that allow researchers, policymakers and stakeholders to compare pathways, identify trade-offs and test decisions under uncertainty.
About
What are energy scenarios?
Think of scenarios as coherent stories about the future that explore how the energy system might evolve under different what-if assumptions about factors such as policy, technology, society, resource availability, or global developments.
Technology
What technologies are available? How fast do technologies improve? What costs are expected?
Resource availability
How much wood is available? What is the potential for solar electricity production?
Society
Do people consume more energy? What life style changes occur? What technologies are socially accepted?
CROSS
CROSS Scenarios
Common scenario framework developed within SWEET-CoSi for Swiss energy-system modelling.
CROSS scenarios v2025
- Emissions target: Net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
- Aviation: Included in emissions target
- Nuclear policy: Nuclear phase-out at the end of existing plant lifetimes
- 4 scenarios - 2 dimensions