Our Stories

When science speaks, society benefits. Climate research is too urgent and complex to remain within academia. For the ECH, silence is not an option. This is why the ECH reaches out to society to communicate complex environmental research.

The burning of fossil fuels, megafires and land-use changes drive CO2 levels up. How will that affect the Amazon? Will the elevated carbon fertilise the forest, boosting leaves and roots so that they will store more CO2? Or will the nutrient-deficient soils nullify the fertilisation effect that works so well in glasshouses? A spectacular international project is about to find out - and ECH is on board.

Governments promised a green transition – yet emissions keep rising. New research from ECH members Ulrich Brand, Alina Brad, and Etienne Schneider in 'Nature Climate Change' reveals why the ‘decarbonisation state’ hits structural limits - and how a true transformation might redefine prosperity, justice, and the role of the state itself.

We congratulate Jan André Koch, researcher at the Department of Marketing and International Business at the University of Vienna and ECH member, on receiving funding from the City of Vienna’s Hochschuljubiläumsfonds for his project “Lost in consumption – Exploring the social and psychological barriers to understand why reduced consumption seems to be no option.” The project links sustainability, psychology, and marketing, contributing to interdisciplinary environment and climate research.

How can we move from knowledge to action on climate issues? This question is being addressed by the Environment and Climate Research Hub (ECH) in cooperation with the City of Vienna in its lecture series "Environment, Climate, Sustainability: From Knowledge to Action". What lies behind this topic and how science and administration can work together towards a sustainable future was also the subject of the opening event for the lecture series in the ballroom of Vienna City Hall on 13 October.

From 2–3 October, the ECH retreat in Bad Vöslau brought together researchers across different fields to explore how interdisciplinary collaboration can tackle today’s environmental challenges – from microplastics in the air to climate litigation and parenthood in times of the climate crisis.