According to the most recent report by the Federal Environment Agency, emissions in the transport sector have risen by 4.2 percent or 0.9 million tonnes compared to 2020 due to higher fuel sales. At the same time, as forecast in the near-term forecast (NowCast) from August 2022, a clearly positive change in traffic compared to the time before the pandemic was evident.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, emissions in 2021 fell by ten percent or 2.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent compared to 2019. Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) said that the “problem child traffic” is on the right track, but not yet there. “The current trend must go much further down.”
Potential savings of 830,000 tons per year
The VCÖ criticized on Monday that even if emissions from traffic had fallen recently, they would still be more than 50 percent higher than in 1990. It therefore needs “significantly larger steps”, according to VCÖ expert Lina Mosshammer. The VCÖ warned at the beginning of the month that greenhouse gas emissions had to be reduced quickly, otherwise there would be tipping points that could no longer be reversed.
At 8.6 tons per year, Austria causes almost twice as many greenhouse gases per capita as the global average. The currently unused climate protection potential in the transport sector must therefore “finally” be used, mobility offers must be expanded both in urban areas and in rural areas – from expanded cycle paths, more public transport to shared taxis.
Speed reductions would have great benefit with little effort: According to the Federal Environment Agency alone, 830,000 tons of CO2 per year can be avoided by driving 80 instead of 100 on open country roads and 100 instead of 130 on motorways. The measure is also a central demand of climate activists of the “last generation”.
Debate rekindled by energy crisis
The demands are not new: as early as July last year, the energy crisis had sparked the debate about reducing the maximum speed to 100 km/h on motorways and expressways. In addition to the VCÖ, the Carinthian governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) had also spoken out in favor of this. And Transitforum Austria Tyrol boss Fritz Gurgiser recently spoke out vehemently for the nationwide retention of the applicable IG air protection measures.
These should not only “not be shaken”, but it is important to set “further measures” nationwide, such as the speed limit 40-80-100 (local roads, free country roads, motorways). The ÖAMTC referred to alternative solutions – according to a survey by the ÖAMTC, lower speed limits would not be supported by the majority of the population.
Gewessler: No majority in the National Council
In the summer, Gewessler referred to the voluntary nature of such a measure in the debate – but recently she described speed limits as “reasonable” to the “Kleine Zeitung”. The Tempo 100 measure is currently being “very intensively discussed” and makes sense “because it causes fewer road deaths, because it causes fewer emissions, because it saves money, because it is socially fair and you hardly lose any time.” But there is im National Council no majority. ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ and NEOS are against it. “Therefore, I have only one appeal: Please make this contribution and drive more slowly.”
German Federal Environment Agency for speed limits
The debate about speed limits on German autobahns is now taking a similar line. According to a new study by the German Federal Environment Agency, such a measure would save more CO2 than previously thought. The German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) announced on Monday that a speed limit could save greenhouse gas emissions by 6.7 million tons of CO2 equivalents. This contradicts the arguments of Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), according to which a speed limit would hardly save emissions.
Germany is the only country in Europe where there is no general speed limit on motorways. In the other EU countries, the maximum speed is usually 120 or 130 kilometers per hour. Wissing and the FDP continue to reject such a limit. So far, the Federal Environment Agency had assumed that a speed limit would save 2.6 million tons of CO2. According to the authority, the new calculations are based on floating car data for the entire motorway network in Germany and a Germany-wide traffic model.
Reduce emissions by up to five percent
According to the study, an additional speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour on non-urban roads would increase the savings potential to eight million tons of CO2 equivalents, according to the UBA. By combining both speed limits, greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and commercial vehicles in Germany could have been reduced by a total of around five percent in 2018.
If implemented from 2024, Tempo 120 on federal motorways and Tempo 80 on non-urban roads could save a total of around 47 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents by 2030, the UBA calculated. The savings did not solve the climate challenges in transport, “but they are no small thing either,” stressed UBA President Dirk Messner.
The equivalent would be three million more electric vehicles
In order to achieve the same reduction as for the speed limit, three million more purely electric vehicles would have to be on German roads with the average mileage, explained the UBA President. If their purchase had been subsidized by the environmental bonus, it would have cost the state more than 13 billion euros.
Messner emphasized that the measures adopted so far by the German government are not sufficient to meet the binding annual targets for traffic under the Climate Protection Act. The annual missed targets in traffic add up to 271 million tons of CO2 equivalents by 2030.
German Minister of Transport: No task for the state
The speed limits “could close this climate protection gap between the currently expected emissions trend and the binding targets by around a sixth,” argued the UBA President. Wissing had only emphasized in the “Bild am Sonntag” at the weekend: “The speed is the personal responsibility of the citizens, as long as others are not endangered. The state should hold back here.”
Some of the new UBA numbers had already become known in the past few days. In surveys, a majority of respondents have repeatedly spoken out in favor of a general speed limit on motorways.
