https://feeds.thelocal.com/ Read the latest news and views from Switzerland in English en-us news@thelocal.com (TheLocal) webmaster@thelocal.com (TheLocal) TheLocal RSS Feed The UN climate chief said Wednesday that a record-breaking early heatwave scorching a swathe of western Europe was "a brutal reminder of the spiralling impacts of the climate crisis". https://www.thelocal.ch/20260527/europe-heatwave-a-brutal-reminder-of-climate-change Wed, 27 May 2026 15:22:09 +0200 europe-heatwave-a-brutal-reminder-of-climate-change Europe, which is in the throes of a record-smashing heatwave this week, is the world's fastest-warming continent and stretches into an even more rapidly heating Arctic. https://www.thelocal.ch/20260526/explained-why-europe-is-the-worlds-fastest-warming-continent Tue, 26 May 2026 21:00:20 +0200 explained-why-europe-is-the-worlds-fastest-warming-continent The climate crisis is hitting Switzerland particularly hard, not least through its rapidly melting glaciers. Why is the country warming faster than most others on earth? https://www.thelocal.ch/20251024/why-is-switzerland-warming-faster-than-most-countries-in-the-world Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:58:59 +0200 why-is-switzerland-warming-faster-than-most-countries-in-the-world The climate crisis is hitting Switzerland particularly hard, and the situation will deteriorate further, a government study reveals. https://www.thelocal.ch/20260121/switzerland-to-experience-more-extreme-heat-and-droughts Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:01:41 +0100 switzerland-to-experience-more-extreme-heat-and-droughts France and Switzerland have signed two agreements on how to manage their shared waters of Lake Geneva and the River Rhone -- an increasingly pressing issue as climate change takes its toll. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250905/france-and-switzerland-agree-on-rhone-and-lake-geneva-water-management Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:30:29 +0200 france-and-switzerland-agree-on-rhone-and-lake-geneva-water-management Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has slammed the fact that budget flights between destinations in Europe are still often significantly cheaper than travelling by train. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250822/unfair-budget-flights-in-europe-up-to-26-times-cheaper-than-train-routes Fri, 22 Aug 2025 18:32:46 +0200 unfair-budget-flights-in-europe-up-to-26-times-cheaper-than-train-routes Human-caused climate change made recent European heatwaves up to 4C hotter in many cities, pushing temperatures into deadly territory for thousands of vulnerable people, scientists have said. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250709/climate-change-made-european-heatwave-up-to-4c-hotter-study Wed, 09 Jul 2025 11:03:43 +0200 climate-change-made-european-heatwave-up-to-4c-hotter-study The snow and ice accumulated last winter by Switzerland's glaciers has already melted away, a monitoring service said, with Friday marking the alarming second-earliest arrival on record of the tipping point known as glacier loss day. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250704/help-us-melting-swiss-glaciers-hit-annual-tipping-point-weeks-early Fri, 04 Jul 2025 17:14:39 +0200 help-us-melting-swiss-glaciers-hit-annual-tipping-point-weeks-early Eighteen scaffolding towers with high-pressure nozzles have been erected between the old trees in the Pfynwald forest in Switzerland to help scientists understand the future. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250703/swiss-trees-sprayed-with-mist-in-bid-to-understand-future-of-forests Thu, 03 Jul 2025 11:52:36 +0200 swiss-trees-sprayed-with-mist-in-bid-to-understand-future-of-forests Short, intense summer rainfall in Europe's Alpine regions is likely to become more frequent and severe in the future because of global warming, according to a study released Thursday by the University of Lausanne (UNIL). https://www.thelocal.ch/20250620/climate-change-could-double-summer-rainfall-in-the-alps-study Fri, 20 Jun 2025 16:44:32 +0200 climate-change-could-double-summer-rainfall-in-the-alps-study In the wake of the Blatten landslide, which almost flattened the Swiss Alpine village, there is increased focus on other potentially dangerous areas in the mountainous country. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250619/revealed-the-areas-in-the-swiss-alps-most-at-risk-from-landslides Thu, 19 Jun 2025 11:08:57 +0200 revealed-the-areas-in-the-swiss-alps-most-at-risk-from-landslides Europe has thousands of incredible swimming spots around its beaches, lakes and rivers, but which countries have the cleanest and dirtiest waters? https://www.thelocal.ch/20250621/revealed-where-in-europe-has-the-cleanest-and-dirtiest-swimming-spots Sat, 21 Jun 2025 11:12:22 +0200 revealed-where-in-europe-has-the-cleanest-and-dirtiest-swimming-spots The permafrost in Switzerland's Alps is the warmest since records began, the Swiss Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250618/permafrost-in-swiss-alps-reaches-warmest-ever-temperature Wed, 18 Jun 2025 11:57:55 +0200 permafrost-in-swiss-alps-reaches-warmest-ever-temperature The dramatic collapse of Switzerland's Birch glacier, which wiped out a village, is an unprecedented disaster likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, the Swiss Insurance Association (SIA) said on Monday. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250603/swiss-glacier-collapse-could-cost-huge-sums Tue, 03 Jun 2025 11:08:31 +0200 swiss-glacier-collapse-could-cost-huge-sums An artificial lake building up behind the rubble left by a glacier that dramatically plunged down a Swiss mountainside, destroying a village, is beginning to drain, authorities said Friday, reducing fears of a second catastrophe. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250530/swiss-officials-halt-further-evacuations-after-glacier-collapse Fri, 30 May 2025 18:43:56 +0200 swiss-officials-halt-further-evacuations-after-glacier-collapse A cascade of events in the Swiss Alps led to the dramatic collapse of the Birch glacier, wiping out Blatten village in the valley below, glaciologists and geoscientists told AFP on Friday. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250531/how-switzerlands-birch-glacier-collapsed Sat, 31 May 2025 10:11:08 +0200 how-switzerlands-birch-glacier-collapsed The Birch glacier in Switzerland's southern Valais (Wallis) region collapsed on Wednesday, sending tons of rock, ice and scree hurtling down the mountain slope and into the valley below. It left a village devastated and flooded. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250529/images-show-swiss-village-destroyed-and-flooded-after-glacier-collapse Fri, 30 May 2025 00:07:07 +0200 images-show-swiss-village-destroyed-and-flooded-after-glacier-collapse A massive glacier in southern Switzerland collapsed on Wednesday, with the debris burying a village and blocking a river, leading to ongoing concerns of flooding in the area. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250529/glacier-collapse-in-switzerland-what-we-know-so-far Thu, 29 May 2025 19:55:00 +0200 glacier-collapse-in-switzerland-what-we-know-so-far Swiss authorities were on Thursday monitoring for possible flood risk in a southern valley, following a massive glacier collapse that created a huge pile of debris after destroying a small village. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250529/concerns-over-flooding-after-swiss-glacier-collapse Thu, 29 May 2025 15:20:35 +0200 concerns-over-flooding-after-swiss-glacier-collapse A massive glacier collapse in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday largely destroyed the village of Blatten, with one person missing, authorities said. https://www.thelocal.ch/20250528/video-swiss-village-partially-destroyed-after-glacier-collapses Wed, 28 May 2025 19:43:05 +0200 video-swiss-village-partially-destroyed-after-glacier-collapses