Austria lacks cross-sectoral science-stakeholder interaction for deepening a climate-neutral vision and – based on integrative back-casting – a common view on a consistent required framework and incentive structure and design. INTEGRATE thus functioned as a co-design, co-production and co-dissemination project, fostering the elaboration and implementation of an Austrian climate neutrality path, which integrates the net-zero attributes of Fankhauser et al. (2021). The project focused on exploring possibilities for the design and effects of Austrian climate neutrality pathways with stakeholders, exploring the distributional implications across industries, households, and the public sector, including the implications for private and public budgets, weighing preferences for designs, and identifying a commonly encouraged policy framework. INTEGRATE built on the rich sector by sector knowledge and stakeholder networks available from previous projects.
INTEGRATE´s overall objective was the identification and evaluation of 2040/2050 backcasting pathways of a climate neutral Austrian economy and of necessary consistent framework conditions and a set of instruments that foster a just transition to enable Austria´s contribution to achieving the Paris Agreement targets in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.