President Ader addresses Paris climate summit – UPDATE

Budapest, November 30 (MTI) – Decision-makers have a responsibility to prevent the harmful effects of climate change on civilisation, Hungary’s President Janos Ader said in his address of the UN’s 21st climate conference in Paris on Monday.

Ader said that in 25 years’ time the next generation will demand to know why today’s world failed to curb the negative effects of climate change, which by then will pose a direct threat to civilisation.

He said today’s grandchildren will ask why the scientists and research results had been ignored, when it was known that greenhouse gas emissions in 2015 were as high as never before for 800,000 years. It is also known that 3 million years ago in the history of the planet there had been another period when carbon dioxide levels were similar and the impact of that is also known: temperatures 3 degrees warmer and sea levels 9 metres higher, Ader said.

He said failure to change current, irresponsible behaviour would lead to grave consequences such as droughts, floods, desertification, natural disasters, hunger, migration and wars. Ader said the signs can now be felt “on our own skin” not just in scientific reasoning.

Climate change has predictively grave economic consequences, too, and it will be asked why today’s world had not adopted climate-friendly technologies, why it had not supported research in this area more, why the warnings were ignored, he said.

In reaction to Ader’s speech at the conference, radical nationalist Jobbik said that his words were not in line with the activities of the Hungarian government. In a statement, Jobbik MP Lajos Kepli said that while Ader urged a radical reduction of harmful emissions in Paris, he kept silent at home over the government’s contradictory policies.

“Ader has no problem with a tax on solar panels, the elimination of energy efficiency programmes, a gradual deterioration of environment protection or scrapping of wind-power projects,” Kepli said. He added that while the Hungarian budget allocates fewer and fewer funds for environment protection, a great part of EU funds for the purpose “disappears through the conduits of corruption”.

Heads of state and government of nearly 150 countries will address the conference on the opening day, among them US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The conference to last until Dec. 11 will aim at signing an agreement on global climate change commitments, including capping the rise in the Earth’s temperature at 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The agreement would provide a binding framework for the next 20-30 years, replacing the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2020.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters