Hungary environmental conditions improving, says minister

Budapest, November 3 (MTI) – Hungary’s environmental conditions have improved with the help of increased public awareness of environmental issues, Farm Minister Sándor Fazekas told a parliamentary committee on Thursday.

Highlighting this year’s achievements, Fazekas said fully 3,000 tonnes of waste were collected by volunteers in four days at the end of April, the government launched a programme to increase awareness of energy savings on heating and it purchased and put to use air pollution measuring devices under a 1.8 billion forints Swiss-Hungarian project.

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Further, the OECD will be starting an evaluation of the effectiveness of Hungary’s environmental policies at the end of 2016, Fazekas reported to the sustainability committee. The ministry has set up an inter-ministry committee to oversee the process, he said.

Fazekas said some 100,000 hectares of protected land would be restored under the Competitiveness Central Hungary operative programme and an environmental operative programme by 2023, spending 34.4 billion forints.

He said the environmental impact study for the Paks 2 nuclear upgrade project has been completed and the environmental authority issued the required licence for the project on September 29.

Benedek Sallai R., a lawmaker for the opposition LMP party, said at the hearing that environmental awareness-raising was more diverse earlier and he also called attention to the noise pollution suffered by residents living near Liszt Ferenc International Airport, as well as diminishing green areas in the country.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI