Environmental offices warn fast-tracked approvals could harm nature

Austria’s state environmental ombuds offices are warning that faster approval procedures must not come at nature’s expense. The representatives made their case at a meeting in Salzburg, ORF reports.

Environmental and nature-protection procedures have long been targeted for streamlining in Salzburg and at federal level. The federal government sent a reform of environmental impact assessment rules for consultation last week. The changes would remove some procedural steps and could speed up projects such as wind turbines.

Salzburg environmental advocate Gishild Schaufler said procedures did need to be faster, but not at the expense of nature, which she described as the basis of human life. The aim, she said, should be to find solutions that bring economic and environmental interests together.

Under the proposed law, environmental offices would lose legal standing in approval cases involving projects in landscape protection areas, but would retain it for protected landscape features and nature reserves.

The reform would also require environmental impact assessments for data centres, unlike under current rules. The proposal followed controversy over a large Google project in Kromsdorf, Upper Austria, which was approved without an assessment.

Land-use planning already gives Austria’s states tools to set requirements, including limits on land sealing and energy use, through site regulations. Lower Austria has been preparing such regulations since June. The environmental offices urged other states to follow suit, saying this approach would be more effective than deciding separately whether each planned data centre needs an assessment.