On 18 October 2018, the Climate Change Centre Austria, together with the Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism and the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, invited guests to the Haus der Ingenieure in Vienna for a talk and dialogue on the topic of 1.5°C – how can we make it happen?
You can find the invitation and the programme for the event here.
Fitting for the topic, the roughly 120 participants listened to three fascinating and thought-provoking talks in a packed hall under swelteringly hot temperatures:
First, Keywan Riahi (IIASA) and Reinhard Mechler (IIASA) presented key findings from the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Alongside impressive background information about the report (91 authors from 40 countries, 6,000 studies as its basis), the two IPCC authors shared some eye-opening facts about the current global climate: Mr Riahi explained that historical emissions alone will not lead to 1.5°C of warming. This means we can still act: what matters now is how much CO2 and other greenhouse gases we produce over the next 20–30 years. Mr Mechler further emphasised in his presentation on risks and limits that the currently internationally agreed target of 2°C would result in irreversible damage to some of our most valuable ecological and social systems — such as the near-complete loss of all the world's tropical coral reefs.
Finally, Sybille Chiari (BOKU) highlighted that climate change is not something happening on Austria's doorstep — it's already here. Austria is, firstly, already experiencing average temperature increases of over 2°C today. Secondly, we face highly challenging tasks ahead if we want to catch up with — or ideally surpass — the EU average on greenhouse gas reductions over the coming decades.
Here and below you'll find the video recordings of the three talks.
Following the talks, representatives from academia, business, public administration, the interested public, the media, and other organisations contributed their expertise in the form of a Talanoa Dialogue on the following topic groups:
- Energy & Industry: Accelerating the decarbonisation of industry and the energy system
- Mobility and Buildings: Sustainable innovations in technology and lifestyle
- Cities: Sustainable and resilient urban systems
- Land & Ecosystems: Managing competing interests sustainably
- Finance: Partnerships and mechanisms for mobilising sustainable investment
- Education and Empowerment: Supporting individual responsibility and sustainable consumer choices
- Economics & the Future: Innovative approaches to a low-emission economic system
- Sustainable Development: Sustainable and resilient development pathways
The aim was to use a consensus-oriented dialogue format to collectively identify what is already happening in Austria, where there are still gaps, and what constructive ideas could be fed into the international Talanoa Dialogue to help achieve the 1.5°C target. CCCA also submitted the output of the event to the website set up by the UNFCCC Secretariat as stakeholder input to question three: "How do we get there?" You can find the contribution here and at www.talanoadialogue.com. The inputs fed into the political discussions at COP24 in Katowice in December 2018.
The event was certified with the Austrian Ecolabel for Green Meetings/Events. Contact person: Claudia Michl - claudia.michl@ccca.ac.at
Feedback on the event and the Green Meeting can be submitted to info@ccca.ac.at.
