"Club of Rome" celebrates its 50th anniversary. In the 1970s, the "Club of Rome" with its disturbing report "Limits to Growth" was a familiar term to the general public.

Angela Köppl

WIFO researcher Angela Köppl in discussion with Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (right) and moderator Hans Bürger. – © Club of Rome

25.10.2018

"Club of Rome" celebrates its 50th anniversary

In the 1970s, the "Club of Rome" with its disturbing report "Limits to Growth" was a familiar term to the general public.

This year the Club of Rome celebrates its 50th anniversary. On the occasion of this anniversary, the Austrian Chapter of the Club of Rome (CoR) together with the Austrian National Bank organised a ceremony on 22 September 2018 and invited Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker as a keynote speaker.

The event met with great interest. Weizsäcker presented basic ideas and diagnosis from the latest report of the Club of Rome "We are on – What we have to change if we want to stay, A new Enlightenment for a full world". He addressed the pressing environmental problems associated with the existing economic system and pleaded for economic development paths that move within ecological boundaries.

In the following panel discussion with Hannes Swoboda, President of the Austrian Chapter of the CoR, Angela Köppl (environmental economist at WIFO and Vice President of the Austrian Chapter of the CoR), and Monika Chabicovsky (Toxicology Consulting GmbH and Chairman of the Austrian Chapter of the CoR), various aspects of economic and environmental policy were discussed.