SWISS BENCHMARK STUDY COMPARES FIVE EUROPEAN EPAS



Switzerland enjoys an above-average quality of environment for an average level of environmental expenditure. This is achieved with a below-average number of personnel at the national environmental agency. These findings emerge in a benchmark study commissioned by SAEFL - Switzerland's environment agency, which compared the national environmental authorities of Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Denmark and Switzerland.



Per capita Federal spending on environmental protection in Switzerland is below the average for the countries studied. At CHF 71 per head it amounts to CHF 22 less than the average commitment of financial resources for all five countries. The number of employees at the Swiss environmental agency per 10,000 inhabitants is also below average, coming to 0.35 or just half the ratio for the five nations taken together (0.67). The Swiss agency's personnel and workplace costs, on the other hand, are higher than average due to the high wages and cost of living in Switzerland.



Of the five countries compared, Denmark spends the most on environmental protection and Britain the least. Denmark was given the highest environmental quality rating and Britain the lowest. The benchmark study concludes from this that there is a relationship between environmental quality and the financial resources deployed. Switzerland is in-between Denmark and Britain as far as environmental expenditure is concerned, but displays the second-highest environmental quality of the five countries studied. Thus, with an average level of spending, Switzerland achieves an above-average score on quality of the environment.



The study, "Environmental Agencies in Europe", was produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers and is the first benchmarking analysis created for this purpose