LH deputy Pernkopf: After a previous reduction of 25 percent, further reductions have now been achieved
St. Pölten (OTS) – “While CO2 emissions unfortunately continue to rise worldwide, they are falling in Austria and especially in Lower Austria,” says LH deputy Stephan Pernkopf, referring to a current balance of Austrian greenhouse gas emissions for 2023 from the University of Graz. According to the Wegener Center at the University of Graz, emissions will fall by around 7 percent this year compared to 2022. “The successful path continues. According to the Federal Environment Agency, emissions have been falling steadily since 2005, in Lower Austria by 25 percent by 2021. Compared to the Kyoto reference year of 1990, CO2 emissions have also fallen by 11 percent. This is the largest CO2 saving of all federal states. Now there is a further decline.”
Pernkopf: “We will not rest but continue on this path. Lower Austria is already the federal state with the greatest CO2 savings and also with the most green electricity. And we will expand this even further and even triple it, namely from 5,000 GWh to 15,000 GWh.” The main factors for the decline in emissions in Lower Austria were the switch to renewable energy, improved energy efficiency such as thermal insulation, the closure of the Dürnrohr coal-fired power plant, improvements in waste management and the addition of biofuels in the transport sector. While emissions from the transport sector initially rose sharply from 1990 onwards, they have actually been declining since 2005 and over half a million tonnes of CO2 have been saved since then, thanks to the addition of biofuels.
Pernkopf concludes: “Per capita emissions in Lower Austria fell from 14.1 tons of CO2 equivalents to 9.8 tons from 2005 to 2021, a reduction of 30.5 percent. With the reductions in 2022 and 2023 and the simultaneous growing population, we have now achieved a CO2 reduction of a third!”
Further information: DI Jürgen Maier, press spokesman LH-Deputy. Dr. Stephan Pernkopf, M: +43 676 812 15283, E: lhstv.pernkopf@noel.gv.at
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