Planet Budapest 2023 will open soon

Hungary has nothing “to be ashamed of” in terms of green transition and as regards climate protection, former president János Áder told the news portal Index, in an interview published ahead of the upcoming Planet Budapest 2023 expo on Thursday.

He told the portal that the expo, the largest international sustainability event in central Europe, will feature 140 Hungarian participants.

Áder, the founder and chairman of the Blue Planet Climate Protection Foundation which has organised the event, told the portal that in his address at the United Nations’ climate conference in 2021 he had raised the issue of an urgent need for global action to prevent a climate catastrophe. “But, as data suggest, no changes have taken place ever since in effect,” he said. Carbon dioxide emission continues to go up year by year and “in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the world today is in a poorer state,” Áder added.

The agreements in place cannot be enforced because “everybody is afraid of losing competitiveness”, Áder said, insisting that the only solution was an agreement by the G20 countries that defines which activities are supported and which one would be sanctioned. He said he saw the Russia-Ukraine war as hindering the conclusion of a broad agreement, arguing that beginning climate talks with Russia, a major polluter, was under the present circumstances “inconceivable”.

“The war and any event that sharpens to confrontation between the leading powers hinders the conclusion of a comprehensive climate agreement,” Áder said, adding that the rivalry between the United States and China “was not pointing in the direction of an agreement, either”.

The former president, however, mentioned as an achievement the enforcement of the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement finalised in 1987 on the protection of the stratospheric ozone layer. “The ozone layer is now recovering as a result. It is true though that we had to wait 25 years for that process to start.”

Speaking about Hungary’s achievements in green transition and climate protection, Áder noted that the country was ranked among those 21 that had significantly reduced their CO2 emissions since 1990 while simultaneously raised their GDP. In terms of switching to alternative energy sources, he noted the doubling of solar energy capacity in each year since 2017.

The Budapest expo will be held between September 27 and October 1.

Source: MTI