Gewessler still wants to implement the climate protection and heat law

Gewessler still wants to implement the climate protection and heat law
Leonore Gewessler also named the “Renewable Heat Act” with the phasing out of gas heating as a project that is to be implemented in the last year of government cooperation with the ÖVP.
Image: (APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

In the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal” she saw Austria on the right path. According to current calculations by the Federal Environment Agency, greenhouse gas emissions fell by more than 6 percent in 2022 compared to 2021.

Gewessler was undeterred by the fact that the General Secretary of the Economic Association and ÖVP Mandate Karlheinz Kopf recently assessed the implementation of the law with mandatory emission reduction paths as rather unlikely. Not long ago, Kopf also prophesied that Austria would never get a deposit system, and now that is exactly what is becoming a reality. “I won’t let myself be thrown off track by individual MPs when it comes to climate protection,” she said. “I wouldn’t get any further there.”

Gewessler does not want to dispense with sector targets, as Kopf also suggested. It is important “that we make an honest law and a law that works”. This requires an honest look at which sector is making which contribution. A similar discussion was held in Germany, among other places, and only now are there targets for individual sectors again at the European level.

The minister also named the “Renewable Heat Act” with the phasing out of gas heating as a project that is to be implemented in the last year of government cooperation with the ÖVP. After the end of the two-thirds blockade of the SPÖ, there were already talks at parliamentary level. Regarding the question of whether too little is being done in the transport sector, Gewessler referred to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in all areas. Although the high energy prices are also reflected here, that is not the only decisive factor. With 5 percent economic growth in the previous year, emissions fell by more than six percent.

Denials from the SPÖ

The SPÖ denied the issue of renewable heat. One has been ready to negotiate for weeks, “but there hasn’t been a real date for negotiations so far. That’s not how climate change will be achieved,” criticized environmental spokeswoman Julia Herr in a broadcast: “Numerous important legislative projects have stagnated for months because the Greens have not opposed each other in the government be able to push through the ÖVP blockade policy. This is at the expense of the population and shows only too clearly that this government has outlived itself.”

FPÖ: “Absolutely wrong cast”

FPÖ General Secretary Christian Hafenecker rated Gewessler as an absolute miscast after this interview. The Greens subordinated everything to climate protection, he said in a broadcast, “without reason and consideration for compatriots who get under the wheels with this climate communism”. For NEOS environmental spokesman Michael Bernhard, however, the Greens are lying to their own pockets. “The decisive laws and reforms are missing, for the people in Austria the Green government participation has not brought any significant improvements,” he stated.

Source: Nachrichten

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