AEMS and GBS Summer Universities 2020 kicked off with great succes!

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Jul 22, 2020 / by

Fighting climate change in times of health and economic crisis


The academic summer programs Green.Building.Solutions. and Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems started with a public opening event. While there were 100 guests listening to the speeches of Austrian Federal Minister L. Gewessler, S. Schulmeister, H. Kromp-Kolb and K. Stieldorf in the charming environment of the Kuppelsaal, another 100 international people followed the event online via live-stream. For the first time this was a unique chance to be part of the opening celebrations from all over the world, which was offered especially for the students of the summer universities, that are both taking place exclusively online this year.


Special guest of the opening event, which was moderated by Nora Laufer (Der Standard), was Minister Leonore Gewessler from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. Her explanations about the Austrian climate protection approaches were received with great interest. Together with the economist Stephan Schulmeister, Austria’s expert in climate research – Helga Kromp-Kolb, and Karin Stieldorf – the representative for sustainable building, Minister Gewessler discussed questions proposed by the global audience; such as the educational gap between rural and urban areas in terms of climate protection, cities as laboratories, the necessity of a shared European public transport and railway net and the main paradigm of capitalism and economic growth. Furthermore, the audience got an introduction into positive money, climate friendly building strategies as well as the necessity of an increasing renovation quota in the building sector – claiming politicians as main actors in the overall climate protection and economy crisis debate.


After the recommendation to “stay critical, active and contribute” – which was one of the final statements of the speakers, the audience got to enjoy a vegetarian and vegan buffet.

In case you missed out on this event or want to watch it again, you can do so here.


© BMK, Cajetan Perwein

© BMK, Cajetan Perwein

© BMK, Cajetan Perwein

© BMK, Cajetan Perwein