Climate Protection and Capitalism

The discussion was chaired by tax consultant Robert Rzeszut (Deloitte) and discussed the causes and consequences of climate change as well as options for limiting it. Weinberger, for example, describes the already perceptible effects of climate change and advocates a CO₂ tax and rapid political decisions.

Angela Köppl stressed that climate change not only means an increase in temperature, but is also reflected in an increasing frequency of extreme weather events. This in turn is associated with economic costs and effects on the quality of life.

The phasing out of fossil fuels is therefore indispensable and requires a correspondingly ambitious political framework in Austria. "The dimension of the necessary changes is enormous and requires more than minor changes along the usual consumption and production paths," Köppl said. In realpolitik, climate policy is often pushed into the background by short-term trade-offs between climate targets and short-term competitiveness effects. This may overlook the fact that in the medium or long term, however, this presents itself differently.