Opposition parties slam government over energy policies

Opposition parties on Saturday castigated the government for preferring fossil fuels to renewables in attempts to handle the energy shortfall.

Instead of felling more trees, insulating housing would be a better solution, LMP co-leader Máté Kanász-Nagy told a press briefing on Saturday. Citing a recent government decree, he said plans were to destroy forests for firewood instead of exploiting green solutions to the energy crisis. Instead of “heating Hungarian streets with Russian gas”, an insulation scheme would help to reduce bills while also helping to create tens of thousands of jobs, he said, adding that 650,000 homes could be insulated by the end of the current parliamentary cycle in 2026.

The LMP politician also claimed possible savings of 420,000 tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions and 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Meanwhile, Rebeka Szabó, Párbeszéd’s co-leader, said the ban on wind farms should he lifted and the tax on solar panels and heat pumps abolished. In a statement today, she also decried the government’s decree on firewood as “pointless and harmful”, saying Hungary’s native forests were under “serious danger”. The possible consequences of deforestation, she added, were worse air pollution, water shortages and drought.

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Source: MTI