19. 07. 10. - 15:00

Weak 'green jobs' rate revealed

Austrias’ ambition to become an eco-friendly country has suffered a massive setback following revelations that just one in 20 jobs is "green".

People’s Party (ÖVP) Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said today (Mon) a meagre five per cent of people working in Austria were employed in the environmental technology sector.

The minister nevertheless announced he wanted to create a further 100,000 "green jobs" over the next 10 years so 285,000 people can find work in this "key future branch".

Berlakovich said he will support various initiatives to raise the number of positions with investments of around 760 million Euros this year – despite ÖVP Finance Minister Josef Pröll’s recent appeal to all ministries to cut back on their budgets in order to slash soaring State debt by 2013.

Berlakovich further explained he wanted Austria to become independent from fossil energy, adding that he wanted to raise the share of renewable energy sources from 24 to 34 per cent until 2020.

Environmental experts at the European Commission (EC) criticised Austria last month over news that there had been 9.6 per cent more carbon dioxide emissions in the country two years ago than in 1990.

Only Spain and Luxembourg did worse among the first 15 European Union (EU) member states with respective rises of 40 and 28 per cent.

Another result of the EU-wide study is that Austria reduced its emissions by a paltry 0.4 per cent between 2007 to 2008. Austria must slash its carbon dioxide emissions compared to 1990 data by 13 per cent by 2012, according to the 1997 Kyoto Agreement.

Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Werner Faymann meanwhile warned coalition partner ÖVP that he will object to any attempts to raise car fuel taxes to avoid further pressure to commuters using cars.

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