A BreakFree Suisse investigation

Investing in Climate Chaos - Switzerland

Swiss public money is funding fossil-fuel expansion. Here is how much, and what you can do about it.

Take action → Read the report

A small country with an outsized fossil footprint

Despite net-zero pledges, Swiss institutions' holdings in coal, oil and gas continue to expand rather than shrink. It's tempting to see this as private-sector territory, beyond public reach — but a significant share of this money runs through publicly mandated institutions: cantonal banks, public insurers, pension funds. The public has a claim over how it's stewarded. Some of it can be moved.

Based on Urgewald & Profundo's IICC 2026 database, tracking 8,400+ institutional investors.

USD 126.9bn
held by Swiss institutions in coal, oil and gas — the 8th-largest national total in the world
Investing in Climate Chaos 2026
1st in the world
in terms of fossil assets per resident (USD +14,000 per capita)
Our calculation, IICC 2026 ÷ population
91%
of Swiss fossil holdings sit in companies still developing new reserves and infrastructure rather than winding down
IICC 2026

What the data shows

Switzerland is the world's 8th-largest fossil investor.

Switzerland is the world's 8th-largest fossil investor.

For a country with roughly 0.1% of the world's population, that is a striking rank. Switzerland's domestic emissions are modest — its financial footprint is not.

UBS alone accounts for 57% of the Swiss total.

UBS alone accounts for 57% of the Swiss total.

No other institution comes close — moving Switzerland's fossil money has to start with UBS, an actor stewarding money that is often ours.

The money funds extraction, not transition.

The money funds extraction, not transition.

91% of Swiss fossil holdings sit in companies still expanding, not winding down — a bet on the sector's growth that public pension savings and cantonal money should not be financing.

What you can do

A large share of this money runs through institutions the public has a claim over. Each can be asked, in writing, to align its financial flows with climate objectives — a goal Switzerland's Climate and Innovation Act already commits the Confederation to pursue.

🏦

Pension funds and their supervisor

Swiss pension funds manage over CHF 1,400 billion of public money. Many are rated non-climate compatible by the Climate Alliance's Klima-Rating, despite net-zero pledges — their supervisory authority has the power to compel what they won't do voluntarily.

Write to them →
🏛️

Cantonal banks and their supervisor

Every cantonal bank in Switzerland holds fossil fuel shares and bonds, per Investing in Climate Chaos 2026. These banks are owned by their cantons and carry a state guarantee — public money, directly. FINMA, their financial supervisor, could require more. (Cantonal banks aren't covered by the Klima-Rating, which only scores pension funds.)

Write to them →
💰

The Swiss National Bank

The SNB holds USD 9.3 billion in fossil fuel shares in its foreign exchange reserves — genuinely public money on its own balance sheet. The cantons are its majority shareholders, giving cantonal governments direct standing to demand change.

Write to them →
✍️

Lever: the Sustainable Finance Initiative

Support the Sustainable Finance Initiative, which would make alignment with the Paris Agreement binding across the whole Swiss financial centre.

Support the initiative →