History of the Austrian Environmental Fund Wolfram Tertschnig

Austrian federal system of environmental support Historically we have three sections: –Water Management fund –Recultivating of contaminated sites –Environmental fund

Water Management Fund Founded 1948 Priority task: Water supply of municipalities In the sixties additional: waste water plants In the seventies: turn over towards waste water In the eighties: large plants in all major cities In the nineties: small plants in rural areas

Waste Water goals Present situation: 92 % connected to water supply, 83 % connected to modern waste water plants Money provided since 1993: M€ support for M€ investments Goals: 98 % connection to water supply, 92 % connected to waste water plants Investments necessary : 224 M€ for water supply and M€ for waste water

Environmental Fund After the first ecological movements founded in 1986 Priority tasks: air quality and hazardous waste of enterprises Due to the problem of acid rain the first large campaign was to reduce the SO2 emissions. In the nineties: turn over to CO2 reduction

Environmental Funds goals Money provided since 1993: 232 M€ support for M€ investments Goals: Concentration on the Kyoto protocol and CO2 reduction Support necessary: Increasing the support means up to 73 M€ per year

Recultivating of contaminated sites Founded after a scandal in 1989 Priority tasks: immediate actions for groundwater protection System of detection of hazardous dump sites Priority list of the UBA

Funds risings Water and waste water fund: share of tax income dedicated as a percentage and fixed between federal and provincial level for several years Environmental fund: Federal budget and casually co financed by EU structural funds and provinces Contaminated sites fund: earmarked levy on depositing and exporting waste

Funds disbursement Water and waste water: –Until 1993: loans by the funds (rates 1 % - 3 %) –Since 1993: grants to loans and interest rates of loans (20 % - 60 %) deriving from the account and from the funds Environment: –Until 2001: grants up to 30 % of the total costs –From 2002: grants up to 60 % to the additional environmental costs Contaminated sites: –Grants to investments –Since 1997: including some parts of operating costs

Management of the funds until 1993 Water fund was founded as a part of the ministry Own legal entity in 1984 headed by the ministry Environmental fund: own legal entity Merging of the two funds in 1989 New tasks like dump sites or financing environmental actions abroad 1993 outsourcing of funds management

Management of the funds since 1993 All funds are managed by the Kommunalkredit Austria AG on behalf of the minister Kommunalkredit was a bank, specialised in communal financing Kommunalkredit took over the tasks and the staff of the Funds Rights and duties of the Kommunalkredit are laid down in a contract with the Ministry