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by Tony Cooper - Nature Protection representative

Our Alpenverein (ÖAV) takes its climate protection and broader nature protection roles very seriously. The German Alpenverein (DAV), which works very closely with us, has already developed a plan to make its activities carbon neutral by 2030; and the ÖAV is in the middle of a 6 month crash programme to do something similar - a tall order! Issue #4.2022 of Bergauf, the ÖAV's members' magazine, has more than half of its text devoted to Nature issues. It's billed as focussing on wind power, which it does, but there's much more than that. The issue is available as a pdf online but sadly Google Translate makes a hash of translating most of it.

The articles include several on aspects of Wind Power generation in the Alps - a very tricky issue. The main one of these by Irene Welebil from the Nature Protection dept. explains the ÖAV's concerns and includes a position statement. The diagrams, which are included here, show the main points. Elsewhere in the issue are:

All this interspersed with the usual excellent fare about mountain biking, alpine history, Alpenverein Youth, touring tips etc.

The main article on Wind Power in the Alps sets out the Alpenverein's position on siting of new installations in the highly sensitive Alpine ecosystems The installation of new ones needs extreme care and may well be undesirable:

In such places one must carefully assess the value of the expected energy generation in relation to the expected damage to nature and wildlife. The diagrams shown illustrate the ideas. on imports is becoming ever more important as the prevalence of major crises increases and this is going to get much worse as the decades roll by. Finally I'd like to mention a contribution by one of our vice presidents, Gerald Dunkel-Schwarzenberger nergiewende kritisch mitgestalten. In it he stresses that resolving the big, linked crises of biodiversity loss and climate change needs a multifaceted approach, and deplores the fact that so little progress has been made towards implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement. Renewable energy alone doesn't cut it without a massive focus on energy efficiency and demand reduction. We need the lot.

Another key article 'Unsere Chance – regionale Kreislaufwirtschaft' looks at circular economies, where people stive to get all their resources locally and encourage recycling. This idea has at least in some circles become fashionable and even clichéd, but is nonetheless critically important. It lies at the heart of what the Mountaineering Villages are doing. The article takes a broad view, explaining how it can happen at different scales including the EU, national, regional and local. Avoidance of dependence on imports is becoming ever more important as the revalence of major crises increases and this is going to get much worse as the decades roll by.

Finally I'd like to mention a contribution by one of our vice presidents, Gerald Dunkel-Shwarzenberger Energiewende kritisch mitgestalten. In it he stresses that resolving the big, linked crises of biodiversity loss and climate change needs a multifaceted approach, and deplores the fact that so little progress has been made towards implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement. Renewable energy alone doesn't cut it without a massive focus on energy efficiency and demand reduction. We need the lot.

References

The DAV plan is at www.alpenverein.de/Natur/Wir-fuers-Klima/Klimaschutz-im-DAV/ under ‘Climate Protection in the DAV’

Bergauf #4.2022 can be found at www.alpenverein.at/portal/service/bergauf


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