A project team from three municipal departments in the capital of Burgenland province has developed a climate neutrality roadmap with scientific support. The key topics are energy, mobility, buildings, waste and sustainable urban development.
“Eisenstadt has been committed to sustainability and climate-friendly action for many years, and therefore continuing on our path as a Pioneering city for climate neutrality was just the next logical step”, reports Verena Brandt, who is managing the project. Together with experts from Burgenland’s research agency Forschung Burgenland as well as the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), strategies and measures have been developed over the past few months in order to achieve the objective of climate neutrality by 2040.
Sustainable traffic concepts
Numerous climate-friendly projects have already been successfully implemented in the past in the mobility area. Eisenstadt is a compact city and its residents do not need to rely on cars, as most routes can be covered on foot or by bicycle. The cycle path network and footpaths have undergone significant expansion and been given a more attractive design. The city is also currently making every effort to reduce commuter traffic. Numerous measures are being implemented here to raise awareness and improve existing services. The city bus service has been expanded significantly, with four lines currently running every half hour in the city that are used by around 1,500 passengers every day.
“We switched the buses to electric vehicles at the start of the year,” says the project manager. “This was a major step as it means that microtransit and local public transport services in Eisenstadt are now completely emission-free.“
More green spaces in the city
Another key topic is urban greening. Eisenstadt is very active in this area and has set itself an ambitious objective of planting one tree for each of the more than 16,000 residents of Eisenstadt by 2030.
Citizen participation
Citizen participation is an integral component in decision-making and transformation processes. A “citizens’ budget” of EUR 35,000 is allocated in the budget plan for each district every year. The city’s residents have the opportunity of putting forward their own ideas in a participatory process and of developing specific projects, which are then implemented by the city. While the focus was on youth issues in 2024, the budget is expected to be used for climate neutrality projects in the coming year.
klimaneutralestadt.at/en/projects/pioneer-cities/eisenstadt.php
