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Discussions about the reform of subsidies with negative climate impacts have been going on for decades in policy and research. Such subsidies counteract climate protection efforts, contradict the polluter-pays principle, and reinforce market distortions and the carbon lock-in. Based on a literature review, the paper summarises the results of a comprehensive bottom-up analysis of direct subsidies and fiscal measures (indirect subsidies) that are granted on the federal level in Austria. The analysis considers energy generation and use, transport, and agriculture and assesses the subsidies' legal foundations and original motivations, the subsidy volumes and identifies the beneficiary groups. The quantification of the subsidies results in a range of 4.1 to 5.7 billion € p.a. In addition, relevant regulatory provisions that have a subsidy character are examined. Considering the environmental effectiveness, economic criteria (like distributional impacts) and potential legal constraints reform suggestions are developed for the support measures.

Im Rahmen der Ökologisierung von Abgabensystemen spielen föderale Aspekte in der Regel keine Rolle. Die finanzwissenschaftliche Literatur bietet jedoch Kriterien zur Festlegung der staatlichen Ebene, die für die Bepreisung unterschiedlicher negativer Externalitäten am besten geeignet wäre. Im österreichischen Kontext wären sowohl die stärkere Ökologisierung des Abgabensystems als auch in bestimmten Bereichen eine stärkere Dezentralisierung umweltbezogener Steuern und Abgaben überlegenswert.

Two major international frameworks provide landmarks for future development paths: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. Monitoring the progress towards achieving the individual goals must take into account a multitude of synergies and trade-offs. In this paper we use composite indices to analyse climate and energy policies in selected EU member countries. These results show that, in general, the improvements regarding energy efficiency, emissions and deployment of renewables have been moderate in the period under observation (2005–2015). This hints at the time needed for restructuring to take place, which underlines the importance of credible political commitments to climate targets, the implementation of ambitious instruments and the need for stability in the guiding frameworks to effectuate substantial changes. In addition, the analysis of the selected countries shows that they are characterised by very specific energy systems (complemented by specific social structures), and this determines the challenges that each country must overcome on the way to decarbonisation and sustainable development. While the SDGs are to be implemented on a global scale, it is necessary to adapt them to the characteristics of a given country or region. Reliable and long-term quantitative data that is comparable across countries or regions and that takes into account the social dimension is required to be able to monitor the overall progress of SGD implementation.

Many climate-relevant decisions are taken in other policy areas with only little regard to climate change impacts. For climate policy to be successful it has to be integrated in decision-making and legislative processes in basically all policy areas and all levels of government. We analyse the extent of climate policy integration (CPI) in Austrian policy-making via in-depth expert interviews, both on the federal level as well as on the regional level using Styria as a case study. The results show a broad range of perceptions regarding the degree of CPI in Austria. The consideration of climate policy issues generally depends on the core competence of the respective institution. Moreover, we found widely diverging views on whether CPI in Austria is too ambitious or too weak. Especially, potential negative impacts of climate policy on competitiveness or employment are seen to hamper a more ambitious implementation of mitigation policies.