Verbund Says It Has $103 Billion Solution for Austria’s Malaise

(Bloomberg) -- The chief executive officer of Austria’s most valuable listed company urged legislators negotiating a new government to stick by ambitious climate targets and double down on investment in the power grid. 

Verbund AG’s €100 billion ($103 billion) investment plan to boost clean power generation, transmission capacity and storage in the central European nation by 2040 would help lift Austria’s economy out its second year of recession because most technology and material can be sourced locally, CEO Michael Strugl said Thursday at briefing in Vienna. 

“Pragmatism is preferable to ideology to achieve our national goals,” he said. “This is a growth plan that can generate a lot of domestic economic activity.”

Climate-change skeptics in Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party, which was asked this week to form a government, have raised doubts about whether the country should stick by a plan to hit emissions targets 10 years ahead of the European Union’s goal.

Some export-oriented industries, meanwhile, question whether Austria — one of Europe’s biggest hydropower generators — needs to pour billions of euros into hydrogen, solar and wind energy when it faces a weak economy and yawning budget deficit. 

Strugl countered that abandoning the climate targets would create different kinds of risks, by obscuring the horizons of businesses that value planning stability. 

“I understand the viewpoint of industry which sees 2040 coming much too quickly,” Strugl said. “We need to focus on national competitiveness. But there is also a generational responsibility that shouldn’t be ignored.” 

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.