Senior FPÖ figures regularly cast doubt on human-made climate change. Renowned climate researchers show just how fact-free FPÖ's politics really are. The flooding disaster came at the worst possible time for the Freedom Party. Two weeks before the general election, climate has become a defining campaign issue.
While scientists are linking the extreme weather event to the climate crisis, several Austrian media outlets reported on how FPÖ EU delegation leader Harald Vilimsky dined with climate change deniers in Chicago to raise money for the notorious Heartland Institute. This is an American lobbying organisation that has received funding from oil and tobacco companies to cast doubt on scientific findings.
"The causes of the climate crisis are clear and scientifically established as human-made. Rather than continuing to distract ourselves with the causes, we urgently need to focus on the solutions that are already available," says the Austrian climate research network CCCA, appealing to policymakers.
But since former FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache, climate change denial has been a tradition within the FPÖ. DER STANDARD asked renowned climate researchers from CCCA to scientifically scrutinise seven official statements made by senior Freedom Party figures over the past seven years. The analysis is damning for the FPÖ — and it shows just how far removed from science the Freedom Party has been in its politics for years.
Read the full article on derstandard.at!
Also check out the report published by S4F: "Climate policy of the FPÖ: Dangerous for everyone in Austria"
In front of the Federal Chancellery in Vienna, Scientists for Future held a public press conference on 26.9.2024 on the FPÖ's climate and democracy policies. Here we present contributions from Franz Essl (ecologist), Reinhard Steurer (political scientist), Eva Vetter (linguist) and Gottfried Roithinger (biologist) and Martin Puntigam (Science Buster).
Franz Essl on the FPÖ: Nature conservation is climate protection is protection of people is protection of our homeland: I'll start with a summary of the facts and contextualise them in relation to FPÖ policy and recent events: the flooding! Climate protection is a matter of survival. Climate change is real. These are the scientific facts.
