The NGO AllRise is taking legal action against the Republic of Austria to stop sealing nature.
Every day, an average area of 11.5 hectares gets sealed in Austria. This is four times the target value of 2.5 hectares per day currently set by the government. With such performance, Austria is in the top of European rankings when it comes to the destruction of nature. At a rate of 26.6%, land sealing in Austria has increased significantly faster between 2001 and 2019 than population growth at 10.9% during the same period. Numerous governments have failed to actively address this problem of concern. The central European country lacks a progressive soil protection strategy as well as a climate law.
Due to a lack of efforts to protect domestic land, the area available for nature, agriculture or water seepage is shrinking from year to year in Austria resulting in numerous negative consequences, including the creation of “heat areas”. This problem isn’t new at all, but decision makers have turned a blind eye to it for decades.
Therefore, the NGO AllRise decided to initiate a lawsuit against the Republic of Austria to reverse this trend. A crowdfunding initiative launched end of March 2023 shall finance the initiative!
You can support the crowdfunding initiative with a donation here
The lawsuit shall hold decision makers accountable and result in legislative acts to properly protect soil. To this end, the NGO is filing a state liability action against the federal government and the federal states at the Constitutional Court (VfGH). AllRise is also calling for a climate protection law worthy of its name and a binding soil protection strategy. Natural soil is core in addressing the climate crisis.
The NGO ALL RI§E, founded in Austria, focuses on using legal means to protect nature, especially environmental and climate lawsuits. Their kick-off in November 2021 was the submission of a communication to take legal action against Jair Bolsonaro at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity such as the consequences from the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Nicolas Entrup is co-founder of AllRise. Shifting Values supports the initiative.
