The current climate plans would not be enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and would have to be significantly improved. “It’s time to go from a leisurely stroll to a sprint,” said Johannes Wahlmüller from Global 2000.
“We’re heading for three degrees”
According to the state of the art, the climate plans submitted by the federal states would not achieve a reduction of 1.5 degrees – as provided for in the Paris Agreement. Instead of a CO2 reduction of 50 percent by 2030, the value would increase by 16 percent over this period. This would not even be able to maintain a temperature rise of two degrees. “We are heading towards three degrees,” said the Global 2000 climate spokesman at a press conference on Tuesday.
According to Wahlmüller, however, it is still possible to contain the rise in temperature. “The most important thing at the climate conference in Glasgow is to give the go-ahead to catch up. Austria’s federal government is again called upon to make our country a global role model for climate protection,” said the climate spokesman. The next steps would be an effective climate protection law, the legally binding exit from climate-damaging oil and gas heating and a future-oriented mobility policy. The alliance called on Europe to improve the climate target: instead of 55 percent, 65 percent CO2 should be saved by 2030.
According to the alliance, Glasgow should also find new ways to better help the countries of the global south financially. These countries are particularly hard hit by the effects of climate change, but have made little contribution to the rising CO2 emissions themselves. “The guaranteed annual support of 100 billion US dollars by the industrialized countries was not met. Far too small a portion of the funds is used for the necessary adaptation to the consequences of global warming and local organizations have hardly any access to this support. The international community has to urgently close the gaps in climate finance and agree on a new and sufficient financial support target from 2025 “, says Martin Krenn, advisor for climate policy at the coordination office of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference.
The CARE helper Chikondi Chabvuta from Zimbabwe reported how much the south of Africa is affected by the effects of climate change. “Here in Zimbabwe, Malawi and in other countries in southern Africa I see the clear traces of the destruction caused by climate change,” said Chabvuta. Scarce water resources, faster karstification of the soil, droughts and, above all, incalculable weather cycles make the struggle for survival more difficult for smallholders. “Many don’t know how to put food on the table for their families.” Conflicts over resources such as water, land and wood would also increase.
Green space in front of the Federal Chancellery
One day before the federal, state and municipal soil protection summit, activists of the WWF Austria symbolically greened the sealed area in front of the Federal Chancellery with lawn and trees on Tuesday. With the action, the NGO wanted to draw attention again to their demand for a binding soil protection contract against land erosion. More than 45,000 people supported this demand as part of the “Nature instead of concrete” petition.
“The building has long since exceeded any nature-friendly level – Austria consumes the area of Vienna every ten years. The loss of valuable green spaces not only fuels the climate crisis and the extinction of species, but also threatens our livelihoods,” warned WWF– Soil protection spokeswoman Maria Schachinger. As before, an average of 11.5 hectares of valuable soil would be lost every day. Of the WWF saw the federal, state and local authorities being called upon to live up to their responsibilities at the regional planning conference.
