Business interest in Swiss climate policy

Business associations play an important role in the decision making process of climate policy. In 2009, the revision of the Swiss CO2 law for designing post‐2012 climate policy is at stake. This paper analyzes the positions and arguments of the Swiss business community on climate policy using cluster analysis. As a main finding, we can observe gradual positioning between opponents and proponents to climate regulation. There is no solid business front opposing climate policy in Switzerland but different clusters and sub‐clusters of business interest. The positions mainly rely on rational behaviour assessing the respective industry’s costs and benefits of climate regulation as well as the exposure to climate change impacts. However, opponents to climate policy tend to overstate the expected costs resulting from climate regulation. There is potential for business conflict between early movers and sectors being less strictly regulated.