Austria's Overshoot Day: A wake -up call for our resource consumption!

Austria's Overshoot Day: A wake -up call for our resource consumption!

Österreich, Land - On March 29, 2025, Austria reached its national "Overhoot Day", which means that the country's natural resources have already been used up for 2025. Last year this day fell to April 7, which illustrates an alarming trend in resource use. According to the Global Footprint Network "Need" for resources calculated. This shows that Austria is one of the leaders in resource consumption.

In international comparison, Qatar already reached his overhoot day on February 6th. Greenpeace described Austria's performance as an alarming situation. In addition, organizations such as Global 2000 and the Greens have criticized that urgent measures such as a supply chain law are required to stop this development. The environmental spokesman Lukas Hammer warned particularly against the high ground consumption of the country.

ecological footprint and biocapacity

The World Heritage Day for Austria stands for a consumption of 4.1 earth this year, while it was 3.7 earth in the previous year. This change is primarily due to a new calculation method that affects CO2 assignment in international goods traffic in particular. Greenpeace explains that this does not mean that real consumption has increased. In retrospect, past overhoot days should also be recalculated.

The global earth's creation day falls on July 24th in 2025, while the latest national overhoot day falls on December 17th in Uruguay worldwide. The "biocapacity" describes biologically productive areas and water, while the ecological "need" represents the area that a country needs for its consumption. The ecological footprint is viewed as an important indicator of the sustainability of the use of resources.

global perspective

worldwide, the demand for natural resources has continuously exceeded the supply of regenerated resources since 1971, a sign of excessive consumption. Earth currently needs more than a year and a half to cover the consumption of a year. If all people like Europeans were living, almost three earths would be required. This data illustrates urgency to find sustainable solutions. According to bpb Use of arable land, pasture and forest areas as well as the CO2 absorption.

Overall, the current situation shows that countries like Austria have urgent need for action to reduce their resource consumption and to master the ecological challenges.