September 3rd 2025 — Switzerland has found a new home for its unwanted carbon. In Copenhagen, the country signed two agreements with Denmark that will allow the export and permanent storage of Swiss CO₂ beneath the North Sea.
The move is hardly a surprise. Switzerland’s geology offers little scope for large-scale storage, leaving it dependent on neighbours with deeper basins and oil-industry know-how. Norway was first to oblige, agreeing to take Swiss carbon in June. Denmark, with its ambition to become a European hub for carbon capture and storage (CCS), now joins as the second partner.
Net-zero, by import and export
Switzerland’s Climate and Innovation Act obliges the country to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The bulk of the effort will come from reducing emissions at home. But certain sectors—cement, agriculture, waste recovery—produce what policymakers politely call “hard-to-abate” emissions. For these, the solution lies in CCS and negative emission technologies (NETs) such as direct air capture.
From January this year the federal government began actively promoting such technologies. By August 27th the Federal Council had approved the Danish agreements; a week later, on September 3rd, they were signed. The ceremony, conducted partly by video link, involved Switzerland’s environment minister, Albert Rösti, his Danish counterpart, Lars Aagaard Møller, and the Swiss ambassador in Copenhagen, Mauro Reina.
Denmark’s new export
For Denmark, the deal cements its role as a provider of carbon services. Its depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea offer ample storage capacity. Copenhagen has been keen to turn a fossil-fuel legacy into a business model for the green transition, and CCS is at its core. Selling storage space to landlocked or geology-poor countries like Switzerland could become a lucrative niche.
International offsets
For Switzerland, the partnership highlights a broader reality: climate neutrality for small or geographically constrained countries will be achieved as much through international deals as through domestic policy. The 2022 Swiss CCS strategy called for agreements with at least two partner states by the end of 2025. With Norway and now Denmark on board, the target is met.
The arrangement also underscores the awkward economics of net zero. Capturing, transporting and burying carbon is technically feasible but costly, and politically fraught. Swiss taxpayers will ultimately foot the bill, either through higher product prices or public subsidies.
Yet the alternative—failing to meet climate goals—is dearer still. For countries with few storage options, exporting carbon may prove the most rational, if inelegant, solution.
