A resident is suing the municipality of Traiskirchen for failing to take necessary measures to reduce noise and exhaust emissions on municipal roads. The criticism is that trucks that deliver refrigerated goods to industrial facilities are often parked on municipal roads in Traiskirchen for days (especially over weekends) with their engines and diesel cooling units running, “waiting” to be dispatched to the industrial facilities.
The plaintiff believes that these noise and exhaust emissions have affected the municipality and is now demanding liability because it has refused for years to implement “the simplest measures, such as issuing stopping and parking bans, which could have prevented engines and diesel cooling units from running for days on end and the resulting emissions.”
The lawsuit was filed with the Regional Court of Wiener Neustadt, which has already ordered the municipality to respond to the lawsuit.
Switzerland has already been convicted
Piotr Pyka, the plaintiff’s lawyer, points out that the European Court of Human Rights only condemned Switzerland in April 2024 for failing to take climate protection measures and confirmed the fundamental right to climate protection. This makes it clear that states – and therefore also municipalities – are obliged to take measures to effectively combat climate change and environmental pollution. “My client is of the opinion that the municipality of Traiskirchen has not fulfilled this obligation and must therefore be held liable for this omission,” said lawyer Pyka in a press release.
Community was the first to declare a climate emergency
Pyka points out that the municipality – where SPÖ leader Andreas Babler is mayor – was the first Austrian municipality to declare a “climate emergency” in 2019. It is therefore to be expected that the city will comply with its self-imposed obligation to counteract climate change and environmental pollution and strictly prohibit truck engines, including diesel cooling units, from running on public roads for days at a time by banning stopping and parking. The fact that the municipality rejects this with reference to supposed damage to the business location is incomprehensible.
