Until now, the effect of domestic climate policy has been more a drop on the hot stone. Austria does not play a groundbreaking role in international comparison. A new study by Vienna University of Economic Affairs now gives promising principles about how things could be better in the future.
Researchers from the Economic University (WU) Vienna have presented a sobering balance: if you collect all climate measures established by the politics of Austria, they only have a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with a maximum of 2.5 percent compared to the status of 2005.
The scientists Talis Tebecis and Jesús Crespo Cuaresma come to this conclusion with a newly developed calculation method that was presented in the magazine “Scientific Data”.
After all: the emissions fell considerably
The greenhouse gas emissions in Austria achieved a maximum of 79 million tons in 2005. Since then they have fallen by around 26 percent or 20 million tonnes by 2023. In their analysis, the researchers focused on CO2 emissions of fossil fuels, which form most of the entire emissions of greenhouse gases.
In the end there is little left
With their new statistical method, scientists filtered out who have nothing to do with active climate policy such as economic development, population growth, technological progress or the effects of COVID-19 Pandemie. What was left were “statistical bijters” that are due to climate policy measures.
Austria anything but a pioneer
Austria performs poorly in a European comparison. Between 1995 and 2021, the researchers identified only 62 statistical events that can be attributed to political measures. “In Germany it was 131 and even 261 in Ireland,” Tebecis emphasizes. According to the study, countries such as Israel, the US, Hungary and Poland were inactive in the same way.
The aim of reducing domestic emissions by 48 percent compared to the status 20 years ago in 2030 seems to be a long way. Even if Austria were to implement all planned measures, the researchers would, according to the researchers, only have a reduction of around 35 percent.
Researchers ask for large jumps
The largest savings were achieved in the emission-intensive metal industry and refineries, biomass and waste incineration installations and in the electronics industry. However, there was hardly any progress in electricity and the generation of heat, waste water treatment or asset management.
The scientists recommend taking measures that are more focused in the future, which are tailored to various economic sectors. The focus must be on the largest issue: the traffic and transit area, the energy industry, the production and construction sector and the living room. Moreover, the caution must be spent in order to ensure that national regulatory measures are not mitigated by country regulations.
Source: Krone
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