2024-04-23 14:17:16
The Upper Austrian environmental lawyer Martin Donat is calling on the state to pass a new soil protection law. He doesn’t want to evaluate the 2.5 hectares of land consumption, which the states absolutely did not want to have as a binding guideline, as a number, but “without a certain level of commitment it won’t work,” and voluntary action alone is not enough. The best thing would be a measure of soil consumption in combination with a maximum degree of sealing of these areas, says Donat.
In a press conference on Tuesday in Linz, he presented a petition that the environmental advocacy group submitted to the state parliament the previous week and which he hopes “does not disappear in the circular file.” He appealed for people to at least look at “those points where the political ham-fisting is not so pronounced”. In addition to the quantification of land use, other things such as measures against erosion and soil compaction, the loss of organic carbon, etc. would also be regulated by law. The Upper Austrian Soil Protection Act currently contains no or only inadequate standards to prevent these dangers.
But the petition also calls for quantitative soil protection, i.e. a guideline for land use. Donat is convinced that “voluntariness is good, but there is a limit somewhere.” Information and awareness-raising alone are not enough; a “minimum level of commitment” is needed. Points that he would like to see in a soil protection law are requirements for land use and the goal of net-zero land use by 2050. Precautionary values for high-quality soil protection are also necessary; currently these exist primarily for inorganic pollutants, but they are also necessary necessary for organic pollutants and microplastics. In addition, a general obligation for all citizens to treat the soil carefully should be considered.
As early as 2002, the federal government’s sustainability strategy set the goal of limiting land consumption to 2.5 hectares per day by 2030. This requirement to reduce land consumption is also part of the turquoise-green government program. At the end of February, the federal states decided on their own to implement a land strategy without specific targets.
Donat does not want to assess the value of 2.5 hectares. For him, it’s all about having a guideline. He would consider a measure of land consumption in combination with a maximum degree of sealing to be useful. You can also use various measures such as green roofs, lawn stones, etc. to compensate for the effects of sealed areas – regardless of whether it is a residential building or a road project.
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