Climate

Our goal: For the Alps to be climate-neutral by 2050

Image caption:

© Jenni Kuck

The climate crisis will not only result in rather more extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, storms and avalanche winters in the Alpine region: there is also the threat of large-scale, fundamental climate changes that could drastically alter life in these regions with their different climates, or even jeopardise their survival. Achieving climate neutrality in the Alps is therefore the order of the day, one that must be pursued tenaciously and achieved at all costs. This requires political, economic, social and technological initiatives, which in turn mean gaining the support of the population. Effecting climate protection means using natural resources much more sparingly, producing fewer pollutants, focusing on energy efficiency and generating renewable energy in already built-up areas rather than in practically unspoilt landscapes. Technical efficiency and structural measures alone are not enough: lifestyles based upon sufficiency and production chains need to become the norm, in the sense of more resource-efficient, greatly decelerated working and leisure lives – even if this means changing many of our habits.

In order to drive this rethink forward, CIPRA is networking and raising awareness among politicians, administrators and businesses and, together with representatives of civil society, is designing pilot projects and concrete measures to make the Alps climate-neutral and climate-resilient by 2050 at the latest.