The FPÖ political party, wants to increase the speed limit to 150 km/h (90mph) on motorways – how harmful would that be for the climate?
Possible increase in speed limit on motorways. The faster cars go, the more energy they consume. That is physics. A higher speed limit would suddenly worsen Austria’s greenhouse gas balance.
Climate activists stuck themselves to the roads, caused traffic chaos and thus determined the climate policy discourse of recent years: as radical as the Last Generation was, their demands were relatively small. The climate activists wanted to enforce a speed limit of 100 km/h on the highway. Last August, shortly before the National Council elections, the movement finally announced its end. Six months later, it is becoming apparent that their demand could be reversed.
“Raising the maximum permitted speeds on the freeway and expressway network” is written on page 186 of the leaked document on the blue-black coalition negotiations. The sentence is marked in red, meaning there is still no consensus between the FPÖ and ÖVP. But it has been known for weeks that the Freedom Party wants to increase the speed limit from 130 to 150 km/h. This would have an immediate negative impact on the domestic climate balance.
Source: Der Standard – for complete article in German
Article: Benedikt Narodoslawsky
Image by tookapic from Pixabay