Is it still dark at night? In Switzerland, the area with night darkness decreased by 16 percentage points between 2014 and 2020.

According to FOEN, too much artificial light at night can have significant negative effects on the environment: the decline of insects, the impairment of habitats of nocturnal animals such as bats, frogs, or amphibians, as well as the disorientation of migratory birds and fish are among the most common consequences. Plants are also affected – for example, trees illuminated by street lighting lose their leaves later in autumn, making them more susceptible to frost damage. In humans, excessive nighttime lighting can also lead to sleep disturbances. A regional evaluation of the data for the period 2014 to 2020 shows clear differences: especially in the Jura and the Central Plateau, there are increasingly no areas with night darkness anymore. The proportion of dark areas in the Jura fell from 48 percentage points to 22 percentage points, and in the Central Plateau from 23 percentage points to 5 percentage points. A decline is also observed in the Alpine region: