LMP calls on government to stop licensing new coal mines

The opposition LMP party has called on the government to give up plans to license new coal mines.

While President János Áder has repeatedly called climate change the greatest problem, the government “refuses to take it seriously”, party lawmaker Erzsébet Schmuck told a press conference.

The cabinet has been delaying for three years the review of a climate change strategy which would be crucial for environmental and also food safety, she said.

Additionally, it neglects the problem of increasing air pollution outside Budapest, she insisted.

The cabinet has started the licensing procedure of a lignite mine in Ózd, in northern Hungary, and at the same time, hinders the spreading of renewable energy use, Schmuck said.

Renewable energy resources would be all the more important because Eurostat estimates show that Hungary’s carbon dioxide emmission has been increasing by an annual 5.6 percent since 2015, she added.

Source: MTI