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ENVIRONMENT

Why Austria is lagging behind its EU climate targets

A report by the European Union Commission states that Austria is not on track to meet its 2040 carbon neutral targets.

Wind turbines in the rape seed field in Austria
The energy crisis is a big challenge for Austria right now. (Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash)

Austria has an ambitious plan to become carbon neutral by 2040, but the EU Commission claims the country is not on track to meet its climate neutrality target.

“So far, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are not on a trajectory compatible with Austria’s binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in sectors outside the EU Emissions Trading System by 36 per cent by 2030 compared to 2005”, the report claims.

READ ALSO: How will climate change impact Austria?

Even when accounting for additional measures, the country still risks falling short of its goal by 9 percentage points, the Brussels authority announced on Monday as part of the European Semester.

One of the major challenges for Austria is reducing transport-related emissions, as the country serves as a significant transit point for transalpine road freight, the EU says.

Therefore, it recommends Austria develops further mobility solutions and alternatives to car use, citing “local buses, car sharing, soft mobility”.

This includes solutions to connect remote and rural areas to public transport networks, a particularly crucial movement in a country that has several rural villages and towns – and many commuters to larger cities.

READ ALSO: How Austria plans to become carbon neutral by 2040

“Efforts to further decarbonise and electrify heavy-duty vehicles could also be stepped up to curb emissions”, the Brussels commission added.

Bureaucracy halts investments

According to the report, lengthy permitting procedures and underinvestment in the electricity grid are also critical challenges for reaching renewable energy targets.

The commission mentioned that “investment in renewable energy is hampered by complex spatial planning and permitting procedures”.

READ ALSO: How Vienna plans to expand its tram and park & ride systems for commuters

The process of acquiring the necessary licences for wind power projects, for example, typically takes 6.3 years, according to the report.

This is due to the bureaucracy involved in the division of powers between the federal and regional governments and partly due to staffing problems.

According to the EU commission, the country needs to invest an estimated € 18bn in accommodating the planned expansion of renewable power generation.

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ENVIRONMENT

Vast Vienna wastewater heat pumps showcase EU climate drive

In a large hall on the outskirts of Vienna, shiny pipes carry treated wastewater through three giant heat pumps, part of Austria's drive to reduce carbon emissions and its dependence on Russian gas, with more and more European cities eyeing this alternative.

Vast Vienna wastewater heat pumps showcase EU climate drive

The plant — billed as Europe’s most powerful one — is churning out district heat to up to 56,000 Vienna households, with operator Wien Energie planning to double its capacity to 112,000 households by 2027.

“It is very clear that we have to restructure our energy system to become independent of fossil fuels or of different individual countries,” Wien Energie manager Linda Kirchberger told AFP.

Heat pumps work along the same principle as refrigerators, only it is the heat that is sought and not the cold. Household heat pumps have been enjoying surging interest, but they can also be implemented on a larger scale for city heating systems.

Kirchberger said the plant was garnering a lot of interest from energy
suppliers in other European cities, which are likewise in the process of installing pumps that extract the heat found in wastewater and use it to heat households.

READ ALSO: How to save money on energy bills in Austria

Wastewater

The Vienna heat pumps — which are fed by electricity from a nearby hydropower plant — are next to a sewage treatment facility.
Since December, the steadily flowing stream of treated water from that facility is channelled through the pumps.

They extract six degrees Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit) of heat from it before it flows back out and into the Danube. The lower temperature of water discharged into the river is an added advantage given the globe’s warming waters, according to expert Florian Kretschmer.

A photo taken on March 14, 2024 shows purified wastewater from the treatment plant inside a basin before it is transferred to the heat pump plant run by energy company Wien Energie in the Simmering district of Vienna, Austria. (Photo by Vianey Lorin / AFP)

The extracted heat, in turn, is channelled to Wien Energie customers in the form of hot water over a vast network of pipes for district heating, which with 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) is Europe’s third largest, according to the company.

“The technology itself (to extract heat) is nothing new… The interesting thing is that a new medium, a new energy source, is now being developed in the form of wastewater… which is always just below our feet in our cities,” said Kretschmer from Vienna’s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU).

READ ALSO: How Austria wants energy firms to lower prices for customers

Especially in Scandinavian cities and neighbouring Switzerland, heat is already extracted from wastewater, and heat pumps using sewage water are springing up in more cities, such as in Germany’s Hamburg, he added.

In Vienna, initial plans for the heat pumps started four years ago with an investment of €70 million ($76 million) for the current first phase. Wien Energie supplies district heating to 440,000 households, just under half Vienna’s total.

Energy efficiency

Winning energy from the sewers got a push in the EU in 2018, according to Kretschmer, when the bloc recognised wastewater as a renewable source of energy.

“As the EU moves to execute on the pledge to double down on energy efficiency… substituting inefficient fossil fuels with electrified solutions like heat pumps will be crucial,” Lars Nitter Havro, a senior analyst at Rystad Energy, told AFP.

About half of all households in the EU are still heated using fossil fuels, he added. Russia had long been the EU’s top gas supplier, but since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which sent energy prices skyrocketing, Europe is looking to diversify.

Landlocked Austria still continues to be heavily dependent on Russian gas. But projects such as the Vienna heat pumps are trying to offer alternatives.

“The goal will always be that we are truly independent, offering Viennese a secure supply, but also price stability,” Kirchberger of Wien Energie said, in front on the pumps silently working in the background.

By Julia Zappei

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