While the World Climate Summit is taking place in Egypt, the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV) in Upper Austria is presenting a 130-page study on the “Green Transition of Upper Austrian Industry”. It was presented on Monday and sent to member companies and top politicians.
According to IV managing director Joachim Haindl-Grutsch, the Ukraine war and the energy crisis have heralded a turning point, with which processes could finally be accelerated and “many outdated paradigms thrown overboard”. Faster approval procedures, openness to technology and international cooperation are needed. Europe is about to make the same mistake as in the IT sector, which spawned powerful US corporations. “It could also be the case with renewable energy that things are developed in Europe, but the others do the business with them,” says Haindl-Grutsch.
IV Vice-President Elisabeth Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß sees the energy crisis and climate protection as an opportunity – it’s all about electrification and digitization. But it is to be feared that the general conditions in Europe will prevent production and that a lot will be imported from countries where the requirements are significantly lower. “This is not how we will save the earth.” After the dependency on Russian gas, the next dependencies threatened – for example from China for batteries for electromobility. Semiconductors come mainly from Asia, but the USA also has massive subsidy programs here. All inverter producers outside of China have recently lost market share due to a lack of components. According to Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß, electricity consumption will increase enormously, so investments in infrastructure are needed. Hydrogen obtained from renewables should also play a role.
Five subject areas and 30 operational starting points were defined in the IV study.
Source: Nachrichten
