Austria's CO2 reduction: Where is the political influence?

Austria's CO2 reduction: Where is the political influence?

The latest studies by Talis Tebecis and Jesús Crespo Cuaresma from WU Vienna show that the Austrian greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 26 percent in the past 20 years, but only around a quarter of this reduction has been due to climate political measures. This findings, published in the journal Scientific Data , indicate that Austria's progress depends heavily on external factors, such as technical and economic trends. According to their analysis, only 6.1 million tons of 79 million tons, i.e. about 2.5 percent, are due to the earlier emissions of 79 million tons, which questions the effectiveness of these measures directly, the experts report.

little homemade savings

The researchers only identified 62 statistical events that can be associated with political measures, a value that is considered alarming in international comparison. For example, Germany 131 and Ireland have 261 such events. The largest savings in Austria were achieved in the metal processing industry, where national and EU regulations obviously had an effect. The area of ​​biomass and waste incineration plants also provided noticeable results. However, there is less progress in the areas of electricity and heat production, wastewater treatment and maneuver management, according to the researchers.

Despite the significant reduction of CO2 emissions by industry, it is emphasized that more political action is necessary to achieve the desired savings by 48 percent by 2030 compared to 2005. Even if planned measures are completely implemented, a reduction of only around 35 percent is predicted. Analysis calls for a rethink in the climate -political strategy: tailor -made measures for specific economic sectors must be developed in order to really get closer to the goals in climate policy, such as Kleine Zeitung reported.