Abstract

The EC agreed on the COP-4 to reduce the relevant greenhouse gases by 8%. Within the scope of the internal agreement of the EC, in June 1998, Austria committed itself to a more than adequate share of 13%.- The CO2-emissions of Austria in 1990 are amounting to 62 Mtons, the CH4-emissions to 12 Mtons CO2-equivalent as well as the N2O-emissions to 3 Mtons CO2-equivalent, a total of approximately 77 Mtons CO2-equivalent, which should be reduced until 2010 to 67 Mtons of CO2-equivalent (54 Mtons CO2).

In an international comparison Austria shows with 7.1 tons CO2 per capita low specific CO2-emissions, which is clearly under the OECD average of 11 tons and the EC average of 8.4 tons. This outstanding position is attributed primarily to the high share of renewable energies, as the utilisation of hydro power and biomass. On the other hand, since Austria has the advantage of very low specific CO2-emissions, further reductions lead to relatively high costs.

Panels of

Panel 1: Policy (incentives, normative measures, policy mixes to achive CO_2 reduction)

Panel 2: Technologies and Products (innovation, marketing, market transformation)

Panel 4: Environmental Perspective (externalities and life cycle approaches, local and global impacts and incentatives)

Panel 3: Dynamics of Consumption (social and cultural perspectives, actors and their interactions)

Panel 5: Land use,Transportation and infrastructure (urban and regional planning, approaches to change in well entrenched systems)