LMP calls for reduction in total energy consumption

The opposition LMP party has called for total energy consumption to be reduced alongside an improvement in energy efficiency, and it wants a state fund to handle the issue.

The green party’s deputy group leader Erzsébet Schmuck told a press conference held to mark World Energy Efficiency Day that in 2017 global energy consumption grew by 2.1 percent and carbon dioxide emissions peaked. Global energy consumption has doubled in twenty years, she added.

The situation in Hungary is even more dire, she said, with primary energy consumption increasing by 3.1 percent in 2017 year on year, while Hungarians use 10 percent more energy than the EU average.

Schmuck said energy household consumption exceeds that of transport and industry, with heating and air conditioning accounting for 75 percent of the household total.

Whereas the government vowed to upgrade 700,000 homes by 2020, only 5 percent of this goal has been reached, she said, calling for the establishment of a state fund to support investments with interest-free loans.

In this way, the poorest could emerge from “energy poverty”, she said.

Source: MTI