General Terms and Conditions
1. General remarks
Climate Austria (hereinafter referred to as Climate Austria) is an initiative of Kommunalkredit Public Consulting GmbH (hereinafter referred to as KPC) and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. Its goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing financial support to Austrian and international climate protection projects.
Climate Austria is available to private persons and businesses (hereinafter referred to as Participants) who wish to make a contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on a voluntary basis.
2. Climate protection projects
On the websites of Climate Austria, Participants may use a CO2 calculator free of charge to calculate CO2 emission reductions. On this basis, Participants can make a voluntary contribution to KPC for climate protection projects in an amount specified by themselves; they have the choice of earmarking each contribution for either the "Austrian Climate Protection Projects" portfolio or the "International Climate Protection Projects" portfolio.
KPC shall use the entire amount contributed by each Participant, after deducting KPC's administrative costs and any applicable taxes, for climate protection projects in the requested portfolio. The administrative costs shall be published in KPC's annual report on the use of contributions. Until the funds are paid out to the project operators, KPC shall manage the contributed funds in an escrow account.
The contributed funds shall be only paid out to the climate protection projects after the latter have been successfully implemented; in the case of purchases of CO2 emission reduction certificates effected by international climate protection projects, they shall be paid out only after the transfer of the CO2 emission reduction certificates has been made. The contracts concluded by KPC with Austrian project operators shall provide that KPC is to be entitled to claim the return of funds paid out if the expected CO2 emission reductions are not fulfilled. In such a case, KPC shall invest the reclaimed funds in other suitable climate protection projects.
The use of funds by KPC shall be monitored by an independent chartered accountant appointed by KPC.
3. Contracts with project operators
KPC shall conclude suitable contracts with Austrian and non-Austrian project operators. The selection of the individual climate protection projects shall be made by KPC. The contracts with project operators shall be concluded in the name of KPC; the Participant shall not be a contracting party.
KPC is obliged to repay the contribution to the Participant, in the case and to the extent the contribution has not been used for the conclusion of contracts with Austrian and non-Austrian project operators in accordance with the earmarking of funds made by the Participant.
In selecting Austrian climate protection projects, the criteria applied shall correspond to the standard applied by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management to projects qualifying for federal environmental support in Austria. In selecting international climate protection projects, the criteria applied shall correspond to the international standard of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for projects under the "Clean Development Mechanism" or the "Joint Implementation Mechanism" or another recognised and suitable international standard.
The Participant shall not be entitled to receive emission reductions or emission reduction certificates or to purchase or make any other specific use of specific emission reductions or emission reduction certificates through KPC; nor shall the Participant be entitled to any other rights in the emission reductions or emission reduction certificates or climate protection projects.
4. Emission reductions
The calculations of CO2 emissions by means of the CO2 calculator as well as the costs of the CO2 compensation shall be based on established average values which shall be regularly revised. The calculation methods shall be published on the Climate Austria websites. However, the possibility that the CO2 emissions actually caused may diverge from these calculations cannot be excluded. If, for reasons of an unforeseen increase in project costs or changed market conditions, the contribution made by the Participant should be insufficient to effect a reduction of CO2 emissions in the indicated amount, KPC shall use the funds available to ensure the greatest possible reduction of CO2 emissions.
The CO2 emission reductions effected by the Participants' contribution through the Austrian climate protection projects supported by KPC shall be calculated by KPC, applying the criteria corresponding to the standard applied by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management to Austrian projects qualifying for federal environmental support. The CO2 emission reductions effected through Austrian climate protection projects shall not generate tradable emission reduction certificates.
KPC shall take delivery of the CO2 emission reductions effected by international climate protection projects in the form of tradable emission reduction certificates in the unit of one tonne of CO2 equivalents each. KPC shall ensure that these emission reduction certificates are used exclusively for the compensation of CO2 emissions under the Climate Austria regime. In addition, after delivery of these emission reduction certificates to KPC, KPC shall ensure that said certificates are invalidated in a suitable form and documented accordingly.
5. Reporting requirements
KPC shall annually compile and publish a report on the use of the contributions and the climate protection projects supported by these contributions. This report shall be audited by an independent chartered accountant appointed by KPC. KPC shall have no obligation to publish any further information about the contributions received and the emission reductions effected thereby. In particular, KPC shall have no obligation to provide individual Participants with information on the use of the contributions.
6. Exclusion of liability
KPC shall assume no liability either for the correctness of calculations made by means of the CO2 calculator or for the achievement of a demonstrable reduction of CO2 emissions in a specific amount. Furthermore, KPC shall assume no liability either for the activities of the project operators and the correctness and completeness of the information received from them, or for the correctness and completeness of the monitoring of the projects by independent verification agents.
KPC shall assume no warranty whatsoever for the up-to-dateness, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided on the Climate Austria websites. KPC expressly reserves the right to alter, supplement or delete parts of the websites, or the entire offer, without prior notice, or to temporarily or irrevocably cease publication.
7. Right of rescission, exclusion of reimbursement of the contribution
The contractual relationship between the Participant and KPC shall arise when the Participant has received electronic confirmation that KPC has accepted the Participant's contribution. KPC shall have the right to refuse the contribution of any Participant without giving reasons.
To the extent that the Participant is a consumer, the Participant shall have the right to rescind the contract within seven working days.
The reimbursement by KPC of a Participant's contribution on the grounds that the Participant did not make or make use of the journey upon which the contribution was based (flight, car, truck, public transport) or that said journey was cancelled shall be excluded.
8. Links
KPC shall assume no responsibility for the contents of Internet pages of third parties that are accessed by links. KPC shall neither examine nor assume liability for the contents of any websites that are linked with the Climate Austria websites.
KPC shall assume no liability with respect to correctness, up-to-dateness, possible illegal content or compliance with data protection provisions on the part of the operators of third-party websites.
9. Use of the websites
KPC hereby advises the Participant that use of the Internet is at the user's own risk. By using a website, the Participant declares his/her consent to the conditions of use specified in the disclaimer.
10. Copyrights
The works, contents and data published on the Climate Austria websites are subject to Austrian and international copyright law. Any unauthorised utilization shall require the prior written consent of the respective copyright holder. The duplication, alteration, use, transmission or other dissemination of these works, contents and data, including all texts, pictorial images, audio and video elements, for commercial purposes shall be prohibited.
Duplication or downloading for personal use shall be permitted.
11. Data protection
Personal data that are voluntarily provided by Participants in filling out online forms shall be recorded by KPC in compliance with the pertinent provisions of data protection legislation.
KPC shall ensure that the data are properly used and are not accessible to unauthorised parties.
Employees of KPC who have access to personal data shall be bound by the obligation to maintain data secrecy.
12. Miscellaneous
Should individual provisions of these General Terms and Conditions prove to be invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The invalid provision shall be replaced by a valid provision which corresponds as closely as possible to the meaning and purpose of the invalid provision in legal and economic terms.
13. Choice of law and place of jurisdiction
For any and all disputes arising from or in connection with the legal relationship between a Participant and KPC, Austrian law shall apply.
The place of jurisdiction shall be the court competent for the subject matter in Vienna, Inner City. In the case of legal action against a consumer, the latter's general place of jurisdiction shall apply.
