8. Western Europe

Abstract

Austria’s environmental situation is comprehensively described every three years in the State of the Environment Report (Umweltkontrollbericht) in accordance with the Environmental Control Act (Umweltkontrollgesetz, Federal Law Gazette I 152/1998).1 The eleventh edition, covering the period of 2013 to 2015, was published in 2016. The Air Pollution-Inventory Federal Provinces 2017 (Luftschadstoff-Inventur Bundesländer) and Emissionstrends 1990–2015, all published in 2017, describe the status of air pollution. Austria’s Annual GHG Inventory 1990–2016 and the Climate Mitigation Report 2017 (Klimaschutzbericht) give an overview of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions situation. In 2015, Austria’s GHG emissions amounted to approximately 78.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, which is 3.2 percent or 2.5 million tonnes above the levels of 2014 and 0.1 percent above 1990. These emissions stem from the sectors of energy and industry (45.3 percent), transport (28.0 percent), buildings (10.1 percent), and agriculture (10.2 percent). The temperature increase in Austria in the last few years was more than twice as high as the global average. Sectors not covered by the emission trading system accounted for 49.3 million tonnes of emissions—2.2 million tonnes below the targets set by the Climate Change Mitigation Act (Klimaschutzgesetz, Federal Law Gazette I 106/2011), which translates the target of European Union’s (EU) effort-sharing decision for the period 2013 to 2020. In 2015, Austria held a 32.8 percent share of renewable energy sources in gross final energy consumption—short of its EU 2020 Climate and Energy Package target of 34 percent. The final energy consumption of 1,087 petajoules was above the target of 1,050 petajoules envisaged under the Energy Efficiency Act (Federal Law Gazette I 72/2014). Preliminary data show that final energy consumption in 2016 is expected to be considerably higher (information regarding Austria’s environmental situation can be found at <http://www.umweltbundesamt.at/fileadmin/site/publikationen/Publ.pdf>).