Hungarian president urges turning point in fight against climate change

The year ahead could see a turning point in the fight against climate change and this opportunity must not be wasted, President János Áder said at a New Year’s reception to members of the diplomatic corps in Budapest on Monday.

The president warned that time is running out for the world to respond to the mounting threat of climate change.

He said the world would have to decide quickly what it wants to do about the issue, noting that “despite our commitments”, greenhouse gas emissions rose again in 2018.

Áder also lamented what he called a lack of serious progress in the talks that have taken place since the 2015 Paris climate summit. “The best that can be said about the [2018] summit in Katowice is that we averted the collapse of the Paris Agreement,” he added.

“Today we are further away from the two degrees target than we were three years ago in Paris,” the president said, referring to the main pledge of the Paris Agreement of keeping global temperature rise at below 2 C.