“Decision is regrettable, but not final”

The ecologist and biodiversity researcher Franz Essl (50) holds the permits for a gas test drilling by the operating company ADX in Molln “for a wrong decision”. As reported, it became known yesterday that after the mining approval, the nature conservation decision was also positive. However, this decision is not yet legally binding. Complaints can be submitted to the administrative court within four weeks.

Austria’s Scientist of the Year 2022, who wrote his diploma thesis on the Jaidhaustal nature reserve in Molln, which is in the immediate vicinity of the drilling site, considers the location to be unfortunate: “This sensitive habitat is not suitable for building infrastructure there.”

Essl raises a second point against the search for gas in the Steyrtal “Taking the wrong course in terms of climate policy” into the meeting. “Instead of approving new fossil fuel projects, we would have to leave oil and gas wells that have already been developed in the ground in order not to risk uncontrolled climate change and to even come close to achieving the 1.5 degree target.” Many studies would prove this. “Gas consumption in Austria also fell by around ten percent last year; the gas from Molln – if available – would only be available in three to five years at best.” The mining company ADX argues in a broadcast that it would be helpful to environmentalists because the test drilling would take place in the winter months. Essl has little to gain from this argument. “Nobody would even think of looking for gas in the courtyard of Kremsmünster Abbey or at Pöstlingberg – with the argument that they would be drilling in the tourist off-season. There is no dispute among experts that the Jaidhaustal represents a unique selling point when it comes to biodiversity: “A third of all plant species in Upper Austria can be found in the unfertilized flower meadows.” Essl considers the approvals granted to be “unfortunate, but not final”. The Mollners have proven in the past that an approval does not mean the realization of a project. “Otherwise the Jaidhaustal would be under water today because a large power plant would have been built.”

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