There has been no climate protection law in Austria for 600 days. Although the Greens have put such a central flag on their flags, coalition partner ÖVP continues to put on the brakes en masse – the law is “not a priority,” it said Monday. Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) is now pushing – “we will get this law done,” she clarified.
Climate protection is certainly a priority in the government “and of course also a climate protection law. We are working hard on it. Every law on climate protection was hard work, even in this government. And we are getting this law done,” she emphasized on Tuesday in the Ö1 “Tomorrow Journal.” An agreement with the ÖVP has so far failed due to the liability issue.
Gewessler: “No ‘either-or'”
ÖVP climate spokesman Johannes Schmuckenschlager said yesterday that the boundary conditions can also be changed through other individual laws and that a climate protection law is only “a basic noise in the whole, but not the most important”. “It’s not an ‘either-or’, it’s an ‘and’, the coalition partner knows that too,” Gewessler countered.
“We’re working on it and I’m confident we’ll get it done.” The Greens want to enshrine climate goals in the constitution — with sanctions for federal and state governments in the event of misconduct. Schmuckenschlager recently dismissed this, referring to the needs of the economy.
Massive criticism of ‘blockade position’
The environmental organization Fridays For Future Austria called on the ÖVP on Tuesday to give up their “blockade” against a new climate protection law. “Climate protection without any obligation seems to have the highest priority in the ÖVP,” they commented on Schmuckenschlager’s statements.
The ÖVP also apparently misunderstood the climate crisis. After all, this also has consequences for the economy, for example if the electricity grid fails due to storms, rivers are no longer navigable and the food supply is endangered due to drought.
Climate activists hold Greens responsible
But the climate activists also hold the Greens accountable: “600 days without an effective climate protection law, although it is in the coalition agreement, is an indictment for them too.” It would be decisive for the environmental organization that the goal of climate neutrality in the law be given constitutional status in 2040 and if it is foreseeable that the climate objectives will not be achieved, predefined immediate measures will come into effect.
Source: Krone
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