Upper Austria. Climate neutrality and thus the state in which human activities have no impact on the climate system is the focus of many considerations. Governor Thomas Stelzer (VP) reveals in the Tips interview which paths Upper Austria is going.
Tips: An application by the Greens for a climate protection plan in Upper Austria to achieve climate neutrality by 2040 was rejected in the state parliament. How is Upper Austria planning?
LH Thomas Stelzer: We are an industrial production site with secure employment. We do not want to endanger jobs and must therefore give the opportunity and opportunity for the transformation towards an even more climate-friendly design.
Europe and Austria have defined very ambitious goals that apply. If you want to improve the climate, you have to support it publicly because other regions of the world don’t do that. We don’t get any benefit if we drive out the industry, which provides the lion’s share of jobs, with goals that are too ambitious and too quickly set.
Upper Austria shouldn’t put its light under a bushel. I believe that nowhere else in the world is steel produced as cleanly and as modernly as we do here. There could be no steel mill in the middle of the state capital if the most modern and best environmental regulations were not already met. If you want to achieve even more ambitious goals, then you have to give the chance to adjust to them. You will need gas for a while, it will need more electricity. You can’t do that overnight.
Tips: Solar power and the public transport offensive are the big issues. What does this mean for the individual?
Stelzer: That we are taking very concrete steps in the country. As far as photovoltaics are concerned, we are frontrunners in use, and world market leaders have emerged in Upper Austria in the renewable energy sector. Everyone benefits if we achieve the climate targets on good terms and if we have companies that have created jobs in the sector.
Since I have been governor and financial advisor, i.e. since 2018, we have budgeted more for public transport than for road construction every year. The planning costs for the urban regional railway have just been approved. Here, too, the individual will benefit – many commuters will then be able to switch.
Tips: In your opinion, what does it take to motivate commuters to switch to public transport?
Stelzer: Where we have classic traffic congestion and daily traffic jams that cost a lot of life, there you can score points and move people with attractive public transport with good transfer options.
It will only ever work in a good combination: commuter parking spaces where people feel good when they leave their cars there, and quick access. We want to preserve the existing regional railways and make them more attractive, partially electrify them, renew train stations and ensure that there are secure crossings.
Tips: What about the vehicle fleet in the state of Upper Austria?
Stelzer: In 2019 we developed an e-mobility concept for the state’s vehicle fleet. This stipulates that five percent of the (car) fleet will be converted to electromobility every year. In 2030, the country’s vehicle fleet will be predominantly electric with more than 50 percent. My company car is a BMW mild hybrid.
Tips: The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends drastically reducing the consumption of animal products. What approaches is the state of Upper Austria pursuing?
Stelzer: We rely on regional foods in the canteens and kitchens, for example in vocational schools. On the one hand out of appreciation for agriculture – not only in exceptional situations such as the lockdown, on the other hand also because of the transport routes. And we have a very high proportion of organic, so a lot has already been achieved.
Tips: What happens if the climate targets are not achieved?
Stelzer: We set goals in order to achieve them. Until some time ago it was said that with an increase in economic growth, so did energy consumption. This has already been decoupled in Upper Austria and in other regions and represents enormous progress.
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