System: Restart - What has to change fundamentally?

The passivity the politics In many crucial questions and a strong voice of the economy, in recent decades a vibrant global civil society has emerged as its own political force, to which rights must also be granted. In the meantime, many people are embracing fundamental, positive, global changes. But apart from elections, there are no relevant opportunities for public participation in the political decision-making process. Democracy must therefore be further developed and strengthened. For me the biggest lever. The minimum: A referendum needs from a certain participation binding character.

Helmut Melzer, option

Austria's traffic causes about 70% more greenhouse gases today than 1990. In order to achieve our climate protection goals, this value would have to fall rapidly and radically. Nevertheless, the Minister of Transport is testing Tempo 140 on the highway. A case of contradictory politics. And only one of many, in which we therefore do not achieve goals and burn public money senseless.

We need a fresh start in political decisions. Coherent instead of contradictory is the slogan. Utopian? Sweden is already examining all national, regional and local policies and strategies to promote the 2030 agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And thus avoids negative interactions between ecological, social and economic effects. The Agenda 2030 has set the compass in the right direction. We just have to tread the path.

Thomas Mördinger, ÖKOBÜRO - Alliance of Environmental Movement, SDG Watch Austria

The absolute consumption of raw materials per person has to be reduced very drastically and must come largely from renewable sources. Our growth-oriented economic system is not programmed for this task. We need room for maneuver in which economic alternatives are developed that manage without material growth and still enable the collective and solidary provision or financing of public service tasks such as services of general interest and social benefits (eg pensions, care). Resource efficiency, circular economy, bioeconomy, eco-design, recycling, digitization are contributing but not the solution. The future challenge of the industrialized world is called sufficiency: the return to "enough"!

Matthias Neitsch, RepaNet

"We have to learn that greed is not great and that someone has to pay for it when we are striving for the cheapest price. If you want to promote positive developments in our global society, you must look beyond national borders. A decent income, with which one can make one's life well and self-determined, should also be an internationally binding goal, like fair and safe working conditions for small farmer families and workers on plantations. "

Hartwig Kirner, Managing Director Fairtrade Austria

According to the IPCC, there are only eleven years left to keep climatic temperatures below 1,5 ° C and prevent the worst. Austria has committed to a greenhouse gas reduction from 16 percent to 2020 and 36 percent to 2030. At the moment, however, we miss these already much too low goals

- the emissions even increase. Our climate policy needs a new start: Instead of reducing the funds for the environment, climate and energy, black and blue has to raise it massively - in order to refurbish houses in an energy-efficient manner, expand photovoltaics over a large area, strengthen cycling and favor public transport. In addition, an end to the new registrations of cars with combustion engine from 2028 is inevitable. For the good of our health and that of the planet!

Adam Pawloff, climate and energy expert at Greenpeace Austria

If profit and profit are not maximized, but cooperation, human dignity, solidarity and ecological sustainability, then everyone benefits. In our case, this concerns the farmers, they are more than suppliers, as well as the employees who value each other and also our fans, who make a conscious decision by purchasing a fairly traded organic product. We show that it works differently! In order to give a transparent insight, we prepare the general interest balance every two years. This makes sustainability measurable. If more companies were to take responsibility and be judged according to these criteria, the actions of each individual would be more visible and "greenwashing" would have no chance.

Johannes Gutmann, Managing Director sonnentor, Spokesman Public Welfare Economy

The current panic policy aims at our cohesion. We, civil society, cannot accept that! We must protest loudly and unitedly when hate speech is socially acceptable, NGOs are criminalized and the rule of law is dismantled. Politics must not limit itself to constantly creating new harassment for the socially disadvantaged. We have to talk to each other. Not with a raised index finger, but with an outstretched hand. We have to strengthen solidarity and solidarity. We do not allow ourselves to be separated by envy and distrust, we do not allow irrational fears to drive us into the hands of the populists. We fight with heart and brain - and without social romance!

Sarah Kotopulos, SOS Human Rights Austria

Above all, a restart must overcome the existing imbalance - just opportunities for life for all people on this earth are indispensable. From the point of view of a child rights organization these are above all the access to clean drinking water, balanced nutrition, qualitative education and medical care, protection against war and violence and protection against exploitative (children) work and a self-determined life in dignity.

Gottfried Mernyi, Kindernothilfe Austria

Our current economic system relies on profit maximization, unlimited growth and unlimited resources. In view of the climate crisis, the social crisis and the rise of misanthropic policies, we must fundamentally question this system.

In order to achieve a good life for all people, how, for whom and for what we produce and how we consume must be guided by goals that serve the common good from a social, environmental and democratic perspective. It is not about replacing one economic model with another - valid for the whole world and all spheres of society. In our Attac Declaration 2010 have described concrete ways and strategies how to reach our goal.

David Walch. Attac Austria

What needs to change is the whole system of the meat industry, which is mainly expressed in mass production and consequently far too low prices for our food. This calls for three long-term victims: first of all the animals, which are kept under terrible conditions due to price pressure. Then the farmers, who are not adequately paid for their work and also suffer from the competition of those countries that have neither animal welfare nor environmental or social standards. And last but not least, the consumers who are given cheap products (and of course also buy), which are often declared misleading or exasperating.

In order to survive in the international competition in the long term, Austria needs an agriculture that focuses on quality. Of course, this quality must also be honored by the consumer. FOUR PAWS has been working for years to increase consumers' awareness of high-quality foods and repeatedly warns against cheap products from abroad - without of course forgetting that even in Austria a lot of improvements in animal welfare are possible and necessary.

Heli Dungler, founder and president FOUR PAWS

The term system "reboot" has something disturbing for me, because it implies an almost impossible scenario. For dealing with our natural resources, a "reboot" sounds tempting. Nevertheless, we know that this will quickly reach the limits of the politically and economically feasible. Although many claim the opposite, the factual data tells us that so few people have ever lived in absolute poverty as they do today. Our own standard of living has reached unprecedented heights. In my opinion, it does not need a system restart. Reasonable, fact-based treatment of humans and nature would be enough for us to meet a good global future.

Andrea Barschdorf-Hager, CEO Care Austria

In the energy sector we are still stuck in the fossil age. It is still talked about how the renewables can be integrated into the existing system and when they are "ready for the market". This is the completely wrong approach. An energy system with renewables must be re-thought and redesigned. Coal, gas, oil and nuclear energy will soon fill the gap and fall out of the system as early as possible. If these are not flexible, they are not system compatible and can no longer be carried along. And to the point of "market maturity": Renewables are already in the new building, the cheapest power plants. And as soon as we have the courage to finally end the cornucopia of market distortions for the climate killers of the fossil energy industry, the renewables are quickly the cheapest in operation. That would speed up the energy turnaround extremely, reduce energy and, as a bonus, also stand up to the climate crisis.

Stefan Moidl, Managing Director of IG Windkraft

The climate crisis is the most pressing problem of our time. It is caused and fueled by the current economic and social order: capitalism. Therefore, this system must be overcome!

The imperial way of life is incompatible with a system change. It is based on the limitless exploitation of natural resources and labor and means a life of material abundance for a few, rather than allowing a good life for all.

Our way of producing and consuming must change in the same way as our access to mobility, especially in the transport sector, the largest climatic factor in Austria: Therefore large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Lobauautobahn and the 3 have to be changed. Piste at the airport to be prevented!

"System Change, Not Climate Change"

Poverty in childhood has devastating effects on the physical, cognitive and social development of children. Poverty destroys the presence of childrenPoverty destroys the future of children. If children can not go to school, they have little prospects for a better future.

47% of the 900 millions of extremely poor people are children. Child poverty has lifelong effects, because the basis for a promising life is laid in childhood - on their education, social skills, health.Poverty robs these opportunities.

Children's rights tell us what children need: for example, the right to food, education, a roof over their heads, leisure and play.Every child has the right to protection from exploitation and a right to know who his parents are. Fortunately, few of us had to go hungry, but we were all children. We can also take a look back at what children need.

According to a recent study, 60 millions of people worldwide could escape poverty if they only went to school for 2 years longer.

Children's rights have a universal validity. These universal rights have a shared obligation to honor these children's rights as well.

Caritas Austria has set itself the goal of providing 50.000 children (worldwide) with opportunities for growth and access to education.

If children are at the mercy of cold and crises, that is a disaster. If children are not allowed or able to learn, the catastrophic impact on their lives and the society in which they grow has an impact on the future. For children are the present and the future of society, and a child-forgotten society is a society that is forgetting about the future.Christoph Schweifer, Caritas secretary-general for international affairsAffairs

What is the problem facing children worldwide as the most urgent? Good education? Enough to eat? Climate change? Peace, at home and in the world? The answer surprised me: Violence against children, both mental and physical, sees children everywhere as by far the biggest problem. They want us adults to see that and do something about it. That is what we have set ourselves at World Vision - worldwide, in the communities of the poorest people we work with. Only then can we slowly bring about change in this world.

Sebastian Corti, CEO World Vision Austria

What is meant is the custody of those who are in power, for us humans as "passive" masses, and all of us ourselves, the piece of earth on which we live, intact for life, but also our reaction to misconduct of our ideals Values ​​such as the life-sustaining resources of our planet!

If there were a master plan, he has to follow these overriding points:1. Planet Earth first - be good to Pacha Mama!2. Dealing with each other - developing a listening culture! In content-related communication, evaluation and assessment of observationdiffer! Take personal responsibility and maintain a respectful relationship! The system is man made and we have the power to change!3. Creating basic financial resources for all people and participation in theAllow co-design of their living environment! Elected politicians, rulers of a state, as soon as they take on this responsible office, must also take care of those who have not elected them. To see the country holistically - so that ALL can live well. A state is like a coral reef that needs "clean, nutritious" circumstances to sustain that diversity that lives together symbiosis! If the balance is disturbed, a part dies and this has effects on the whole system!

Our chance lies in and with our children by listening to them empathically, sensitively promoting them and leaving them a diverse space for development, with self-confidence and self-responsibility, to grow into a responsible earthly citizen, a responsible earth citizen!Of course, this presupposes an educational policy that recognizes and invests in this resource and makes it ideologically number one as well as taking more money into its own hands than before.Andrea Willson, Pedagogue, Mother and Chair Action 21-pro citizen participation

Climate protection and the preservation of biodiversity are the main challenges for environmental policy. Because it is about the future and the life of the following generations. The structures for it must create the policy - it must work uncompromisingly and in the alliance with all willing forces for a futurable life. Disruption of nature with short-term profits must be given a clear rejection.

Dagmar Breschar, Spokeswoman Nature Conservation Union

We live beyond the borders of our planet and thus on pump. Our creditors are the young and future generations and the people of the global South. You will experience the most massive consequences of the worsening climate crisis. If you reduce your ecological footprint, you take a first real step. But that will not be enough for the turnaround. The second step is the handprint of your own commitment. Sustainability will only succeed if we change structures. We can do this on a small scale through agreements in clubs, schools, universities or at work - for example, to buy sustainable products - or with incentives to change to bicycles, buses and trains. And on the whole, more pressure for a policy that focuses on sustainability.

More about Germanwatch Hand Print: www.handprint.de

Stefan Küper, press spokesman for the environmental and development organization Germanwatch and specialist promoter for climate and development

324.000 Children and adolescents are at risk of poverty. They have a low birth weight at birth, are often involved in accidents, often complain of abdominal and headaches. Tutoring, support courses and support for dyslexia can not afford almost half of all poverty-endangered households. And so today's poor children will become the poor adults of tomorrow. That needs to change. With a basic child benefit, a monthly amount that, the lower the income of the parents is correspondingly higher, all children are materially secured. So participation and development can be guaranteed for every child.

Erich Fenninger, Director of Volkshilfe

If you have more than 20 years of oncology, you can see a lot of what is going wrong in the system. Hospitals complain of overcrowded oncological outpatient clinics. Cancer patients complain about strenuous trips to the hospital and long waiting times or stay in the day ambulances. What we need is a complete rethinking. The medicine should become more patient-oriented and increasingly "move" to the patient. Building on the - unfortunately too small existing mobile palliative teams - you should courageously start a pilot project in which doctors come home to cancer patients (and make the blood sample, which is needed for the administration of the next chemo) and under certain conditions also to therapies Can administer home. Thus, one could give the (understandably) increasingly frustrated young doctors a motivating and satisfying task and save cancer patients a great deal of unnecessary waiting and residence time and thus give valuable life time that they can spend better.

Doris Kiefhaber, Austrian Cancer Aid

We know today that health is not a coincidence. Significantly more dispositions than previously assumed are passed down through generations and shaped in the womb! If, for example, a pregnant woman is exposed to hunger, trauma, environmental stress, enormous stress or violence, or if she consumes alcohol and nicotine herself, this has consequences for the entire later life of the child in her ... and for the grandchildren as well.

These findings should not impose even more responsibility on an expectant mother. No, I think they are a clear mission: Let us do everything in our power to make sure that pregnant women and children are well. We are creating a generation that can harness its potential to solve big global problems!

Martina Kronthaler, Secretary General action live

Mr. and Mrs. Austrians like to sit in front of the TV program, blaspheme the world and what not OTHERS should do about it. We are WORLD CHAMPIONS in fueling expectations of the policy. Crap on the street - where is the community? Educational misery - where is the minister left? My neighbor does not talk to me - where are state integration courses? We regularly think that the state is failing us with important issues.

What if we solve our problems ourselves? What if we make integration, education and the environment a little better ourselves - get involved! "Do not ask what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country," John F. Kennedy once said. Initiative is required! The state can not replace this. Just as engagement can not replace the state. One as well is in demand. This would lead to better policies! If this would finally understand that and promote the commitment of the citizens! But now I am calling for "more state".

Günther Lutschinger, Fundraising Association Austria