The scientist and university professor Helga Kromp-Kolb warns against taking your time with climate protection measures. Otherwise there would be irreversible warming processes on planet earth.
OÖN: What does sustainability mean to you?
Kromp Kolb: A comprehensive way of life, economy and politics that enables future generations anywhere in the world to lead a good life within the ecological limits set by the planet.
Isn’t “sustainability” often a lot of whitewashing of a bit of climate protection?
This is actually a heavily misused term. “Greenwashing” describes many things – such as natural gas and nuclear power – as sustainable, which are not. Ultimately, nuclear power is also a non-renewable resource, whatever the EU taxonomy says.
How is Austria doing in terms of climate protection? Depending on the index, we are far ahead or far behind…
You have to compare yourself with countries in a similar situation. In Europe, Austria – with the exception of waste separation – is at the bottom of the table, regardless of whether you look at greenhouse gas emissions or the legal regulations, whether you look at the share of cyclists and public transport in total traffic or the labeling of food. There is little political interest in an honest assessment, from which conclusions could then be drawn as to where we need to make a particular effort.
How do you assess the recent climate protection conferences on a global level – the COP27 in Egypt and the biodiversity COP15 in Montreal?
The World Climate Conference in Egypt showed that the COPs will not go any further if the proportion of fossil lobbyists is as high as this year. Nothing will go on next year in Dubai either. If a host country is so divided because it actually wants to sell its fossil fuels and, on the other hand, needs a resolution at the conference that fossil fuels should no longer be sold, nothing can come of it. At the wildlife conference in Montreal, the 30 percent of the earth that is being protected is progress, because we are currently at around 20 percent. The question is what happens to the rest of the world? Can we continue to destroy it at will?
Is the goal of maximum global warming of two degrees compared to the pre-industrial age still achievable?
According to scientific knowledge, it should be 1.5 degrees, because at two degrees we are no longer sure whether we can stabilize climate change. According to the latest findings, this is still possible, but it is becoming more difficult every day. In any case, the real problem is a socio-political one.
What is the difference between 1.5 and two degrees?
Scientists initially believed there wasn’t much of a difference, but now know that the difference is huge. Between 1.5 and two degrees, self-reinforcing processes may no longer be able to be stopped and it is getting hotter and hotter. In concrete terms, for example, even if you stop adding CO2 to the atmosphere, ice on the polar caps will melt, reveal dark patches that absorb more sunlight, making it even warmer, more ice will melt, make it even warmer, etc . Such a development cannot be ruled out and it is too risky to try. We would hand over to future generations a planet that is systematically getting warmer. Therefore, 1.5 degrees should not be exceeded, even if that is not a very sharp limit. If we slide into “Hothouse Earth” it will be the end of our civilization. We can not permit that.
The “climate glue” – do these climate activists who stick to the streets harm climate protection more than they help it?
What bothers me about the debate is that we’re talking about their actions, but not why they’re doing it. I can understand why they are doing it, because media interest in climate protection has fallen. What the climate stickers demand is easy to fulfill: A speed limit on the freeway, for example, is not a huge agenda, that would be easy to fulfill and very useful.
But nobody wants to be the politician who introduces a 100 km/h speed limit.
Whether he is stoned or not depends heavily on the media – and on the other hand: With Corona we experienced worse things than being allowed to drive 100 instead of 130 km/h, we also accepted that. It just takes more courage to change something.
Clubs and cultural initiatives can also submit entries to the Feronia Prize. To what extent does civil society need to bring climate protection down to earth?
It absolutely needs it, the movement will come from below. Politics alone cannot do this. Organizations that promote climate protection are very important.
Where do you see the biggest lever for protecting the climate in your private environment?
That depends very much on the concrete living conditions. But you can ask yourself: What am I buying? do i really need this Is it permanent and repairable? How do I live – how well insulated is my home, do I have the light on when I’m not in the room? How do I get around – car, public transport, on foot? And am I a role model and am I talking about climate protection? Am I committed?
- Here you can apply for the Upper Austrian sustainability award “Feronia”.
To person
Helga Kromp-Kolb habilitated in 1982 in the special field of environmental meteorology and worked in a leading position at the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG). In 1995 she became a full university professor at the Institute for Meteorology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. In 2005 she was named “Scientist of the Year” in Austria. Many awards followed, most recently in November from Graz University of Technology, which made her an honorary doctorate for her “tireless commitment to climate protection and a sustainable society”. The professor became involved in climate protection at an early stage and with high publicity. She is married to the physicist and risk researcher Wolfgang Kromp.
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