Hello from Austria.
As there are elections in Austria this year, I sent an e-mail to all the parties regarding raw materials from Austria. Within a week I only received answers from the governing parties. I would now like to share these answers with you.
Reply from the ÖVP party:
With regard to your last question, we would like to emphasize that the People's Party supports the extraction of raw materials insofar as less dependence, especially in the case of critical raw materials, strengthens our location. We must therefore act to secure our location. The security of supply for the economy and the population should not depend on where and when international crises occur. Independence in the production and extraction of critical raw materials is important. Furthermore, a focus must be placed on stockpiling and, at the same time, diversification must be sought in the supply countries. Control elements, such as incentives for the production and extraction of critical raw materials and the reform of the environmental impact assessment (EIA), can help us to simplify the extraction of critical raw materials. These and many other measures will gradually reduce our dependence on Russia and China by 2030 and strengthen Austria's security of supply.
Response from the Green Party:
We are also critical of dependence on raw materials from China. That is why we are primarily committed to the economical use of resources.For this reason, we also take a critical view of the Raw Materials Master Plan 2030. This was not decided by the government, but solely by the Ministry of Agriculture and is now being continued by the Ministry of Finance as responsibility has changed. We were not involved in this. In our view, the master plan is unambitious. It is still geared towards high raw material consumption. However, we are in favor of a circular economy in which resources are reused so that fewer raw materials are consumed. The raw materials strategy also does not address soil consumption, which in our opinion would also be a very important issue. Nor does it mention responsibility in relation to supply chains.We have a strong interest in ensuring that raw materials are extracted in Austria and Europe, including through urban mining.
As soon as I receive further answers, I will post them here. Translate with deepl
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