Climate activists from the organization “Last Generation” started their announced week of action in Vienna on Monday morning, blocking streets in front of schools. At 07:45, just before school started after the Christmas break, “traffic-reduced zones”, as the activists called them, were set up in front of the school buildings in Burggasse, Gymnasiumstraße, Wiedner Hauptstraße and on Roßauer Lände.
They called on the federal government to “finally take its own climate targets seriously and immediately implement the simplest, cheapest measures such as 100 km/h on the motorway”. “Every day our kids have to wade through hell of traffic on their way to school because we’re still building cities for cars instead of people. Today we provide safe routes to school,” said one activist. Police spokeswoman Barbara Gass confirmed several operations beginning at 7:45 a.m.
After a several-week break in their street blockades in Vienna, the “Last Generation” recently announced that they would be holding a week-long wave of disruptive action. Above all, the participants want to ensure that motorized traffic comes to a standstill locally by keeping different lanes. Demonstrators from groups from Graz, Linz and Innsbruck also announced that they would take part in the actions that will take place every day.
Austria is late in implementing the climate targets
According to experts, the Paris climate goals cannot be achieved without swift and drastic measures, such as halting the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. The implementation of the goal of limiting the average temperature increase on earth to well below two degrees, if possible to 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era, is being implemented far too slowly by many countries, the scientific community emphasizes. Austria is also in default.
The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published last year again warned of the “red lights” of the climate crisis already impacting. Exceeding this threatens to turn the Earth into a planet uninhabitable for humans in the future. According to various calculations, Austria emits above average greenhouse gases per capita and is well above the average of the world’s population. According to the Federal Environment Agency alone, 830,000 tons of climate-damaging CO₂ per year could be avoided by driving on country roads at 80 instead of 100 and on highways at 100 instead of 130.
Austria has also been without a climate protection law for more than 700 days. Negotiations on this are still ongoing and it is a long wait for a solution by the coalition. The ÖVP has so far had little or nothing to do with some of the Greens’ demands, such as enshrining climate goals in the constitution or creating binding force for the federal and state governments. ÖVP climate spokesman Johannes Schmuckenschlager said in November that the climate protection law was not a “top priority”.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
