1. August 2023, by Dr. Friedrich Hinterberger (Vice president of the Club of Rome – Austrian Chapter)

Since the publication of the first report “The Limits to Growth”, the Club of Rome stands for future thinking and scientific reputation. Building on this, the Earth4All initiative – initiated by the Club of Rome – published another report in September 2022 “Earth4All: A survival guide for Humanity”.

Since then, as the Austrian Chapter, we presented the book and the project in Austria for the first time at the Ars Electronica Festival 2022 and have since repeatedly included it in our considerations and events: https://www.clubofrome.at/en/ars-electronica-festival-2022-en/, https://www.clubofrome.at/en/one-world-for-all/, https://www.clubofrome.at/en/energy-the-key-to-climate-neutrality/.

Further steps are to follow, with the publication of the book, the work of the Earth4All team (https://earth4all.life/who-we-are/) does not end here but really starts now. Since the beginning of the year, cooperations with various countries were established in order to put the visions and policies in Earth4All in a regional context. Austria was invited to contribute to this as one of two countries worldwide – the other country being Kenya – and since this summer we have been working together with the international Earth4All team to break down the proposals of the initiative in Austria to a national level and discuss and contribute to their implementation.

The aim is to gather experience that can then be implemented in other countries and regions.

We want to inspire and empower people with this positive vision to take action. First steps and activities to implement the corresponding policies in terms of a “wellbeing economy” are planned in these 4 areas, which will also complement and enrich each other:

Research – The scientific background: How can the policies currently formulated in a global context be translated onto a national level and what is the current data situation?

Citizen Engagement – Participation of citizens: Visions can only be formulated and implemented together with the people. Therefore, participatory concepts such as workshops will be at the forefront of our work. 

Advocacy – Dialogues with policymakers: As the book clearly illustrates, active governments are also needed to implement the measures, make courageous decisions and participate in the implementation of a “earth for all”.

Public Outreach – Communication: Earth4All has – based on a scientific background – first and foremost a strong vision and images of what a future can look like if we create the “Giant Leap”. We want to make this vision more precise and tangible by means of stories and images for Austria.

Would you like to share this vision with your network? Would you like to think about how a future vision for Austria and the world can be implemented and work on a corresponding story for Austria? Then contact us via https://earth4all.life/austria/en/home-english/.

We look forward to work with you. The first steps have already been taken. We are already planning 5 events from autumn 2023, each of which will substantiate one of the turning points with a public part and a workshop. Your project can also be a part of it.

For example, we will report on the project at the global Science Summit Session on Wednesday, September 20 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. (local time) at the UN General Assembly in New York: https://www.clubofrome.at/en/session-at-the-sdg-summit-2023-in-new-york/

More information will appear on our project website: https://earth4all.life/austria/en/home-english/