Climate check from 2026: New laws must disclose climate impacts!

Climate check from 2026: New laws must disclose climate impacts!

From January 1, 2026, every new draft federal law in Austria will be subject to a climate check. This step was passed in parliament on June 16, 2025 and serves to identify and prevent the climate-damaging effects of laws and regulations at an early stage. The initiative is a response to the 2020 climate protection referendum, which received over 380,000 signatures and underlines the urgent desire for more responsibility in climate protection. The climate check will become part of the existing one Impact-oriented impact assessment (WFA).

The climate check requires that, in addition to the traditional economic aspects, the effects on greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change will also be taken into account in the future. Ministries will be obliged to analyze the ecological consequences of their legislative proposals in order to create a transparent basis for environmental initiatives, the media and the public. However, the result of the climate check is not binding, which means that negative climate impacts do not automatically lead to a revision or stopping of the project.

Establishment of service points

To support the new process, a service point will be set up in the Ministry of Climate Protection that will provide a digital “climate check tool”. This service point will work in collaboration with the Federal Environment Agency and other ministries. Despite the introduction of the climate check, however, there are concerns: Sigrid Stagl, a climate economist, emphasizes that more commitment is needed when dealing with measures that have negative climate impacts.

Julia Herr, the SPÖ's deputy club chairwoman and climate spokesperson, emphasizes the need to take the climate into account in all projects. The climate check is intended to ensure that climate protection plays a central role in legislation and is not just viewed as a parallel consideration.

Long-term climate goals

The legal framework with regard to climate protection is not new, but is based on international agreements such as the Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. These treaties defined commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. Currently, the Paris Agreement aims to keep global temperature increases below 2°C, with efforts being made to limit the rise to 1.5°C. The climate targets should be renewed every five years in future national contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to document and adjust progress.

Developments in Austria are in line with these international efforts and seek to create a national legal framework that can effectively support climate goals. In addition to the new climate check regulations, there are also new gun laws that were passed after the Graz shooting, which reflects the broader social discussion about safety and environmental awareness.