Van der Bellen's First Trip After Reelection
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen's first trip abroad after his re-election will be to the World Climate Conference in Egypt. The President will participate in COP 27 from November 7 to 8, 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh and sees this as a conscious sign to strengthen the fight against the climate crisis.
Van der Bellen wants to call on all responsible parties to finally get their act together in the fight against the climate crisis. / Picture: © IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency / Dean Calma / Flickr Attribution (CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Alexander Van der Bellen will attend the World Climate Conference as his first foreign trip after re-election and announced his political goals for the summit. This is probably in line with Van der Bellen's most important agenda, as the Federal President is very committed to the fight against the climate crisis. Together with other heads of state and government of the world community discuss the most pressing issues in the fight against the climate crisis.
Federal President Van der Bellen has often made it clear that climate protection needs international cooperation and is the "great, shared responsibility and task" of the international community.
Thus, the Federal President stated, "From Pakistan to Florida to Europe, we have painfully felt the devastating consequences of our inaction in recent months: Floods, storms, drought and heat waves have claimed many victims. We do not have much time left. This makes progress at COP 27 in Egypt all the more important. The good news is that solutions are on the table. Now we need courage and determination to implement them."
According to President Van der Bellen, curbing the climate catastrophe can only be achieved together through international cooperation. The President also stated that there is no more time for patronage politics and egoism, "neither in Austria nor globally."
Alexander Van der Bellen also referred to the war in Ukraine and elaborated that the consequences of the war, in addition to unbelievable suffering for the people in Ukraine, also "undermine our climate protection efforts", since in Europe, too, climate-damaging coal and oil are being burned again.
For the president, it is clear that we must guarantee the energy supply for the population, but we must not lose sight of the fact that we must quickly expand renewable energies and use energy more efficiently. "This is our way out of dependence on fossil energy imports and on aggressive despots and into climate protection," Van der Bellen said.
All responsible parties, be they states, interest groups, institutions or municipalities, are called upon to finally get their act together properly, demands the Austrian Federal President, "It puts the future of our children and our children's children at risk. I have absolutely no understanding of this. The EU, and thus also Austria, can and must lead the way here."