The conservative opposition Jobbik party said on Wednesday that it has filed an environment pollution report with authorities over communal waste drifting on the Hungarian section of the Tisza river and its tributaries, the Kraszna and Szamos rivers, near Hungary’s eastern borders.
Speaking at a press conference in front of Ukraine’s consular office in Nyiregyhaza, in eastern Hungary, Béla Adorján, a councillor of the local county assembly, said Jobbik had clear evidence that the waste causing continued pollution on the rivers over the past several years originates in neighbouring Romania and Ukraine.
He said “courtesy moves in diplomacy” had led nowhere in the past twenty years, adding that government programmes of removing drift waste from the river had only been “ad-hoc emergency steps” and had not resulted in the eradication of the pollution.
Csaba Gyüre, a lawmaker for the party, said that under international treaties, Hungary could have sought reimbursement of waste removal costs by the two neighbouring countries, but had failed to make use of that option.
According to the 2020 edition of Health at a Glance: Europe the emission of toxic particles per capita in the air have fallen in most of the European countries between 2005 and 2017 – but not in Hungary.
Particular matters, such as and are one of the main polluters with adverse health effects. These are small particles of less than 10 microns in diameter ( ) or even as small as 2.5 microns () which are suspended in the air, and they are mainly the result of the combustion of fuels for energy generation, domestic heating and vehicle engines. The smaller the particles, the more toxic they are as they can penetrate deep in the respiratory system and can cause severe damage to the health.
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) published their latest biannual report in December 2020, and figures show that within 31 observed countries in Europe Hungary ranks the worst in-terms of improvement. Here the air quality had deteriorated significantly in the decade before 2017, rising from 4kg per capita in 2005 to nearly 5kg by 2017. The only other country with negative results is Bulgaria, with a change from 4kg per capita to 4.3kg.
The situation is slightly different in the capital, as Budapest shows one of the best results within the European capitals, where the air quality has improved by nearly 25% between 2003 and 2018. This is still far above the WHO guideline, but none the less it’s a good sign.
In regards of our neighbours: Romania shows no change from the 6kg / capita, but all other countries neighbouring Hungary managed to achieve great improvements, especially the Slovak Republic, which nearly doubled its air quality.
The effects of bad air are reflected in the rates of premature deaths per population, where Hungary ranges between 120-180 death per 100.000 population, alongside countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Croatia.
It is interesting, that when the population was surveyed about their perception of the air quality in their own country, Hungarians’ opinion was in line with the objectively measured figures, but in the countries where air quality has improved, the population perception was the opposite – they believed that the air has deteriorated, despite the fact that it was improving.
Sadly, our country leads in several other tables of negative connotation in this report, such as avoidable mortality (deaths that could have been potentially avoided with better public health policies or healthcare, such as ischaemic heart disease, lung cancer, accidents or vaccination), number of consultations with doctors, hospitalisation times, alcohol consumption ( including among young people) or smoking.
One big positive surprise is the data about suicide, in which Hungary was leading for decades, but new figures show that between 2000 and 2017 this rate has fallen by nearly 50%.
Preparations have started to create a public park in the northern part of Csepel Island covering a total area of 36 hectares, the state secretary in charge of the development of Budapest and its agglomeration said on Friday.
Balázs Fürjes said on Facebook that the Budapest Development Centre has published a public procurement tender in the European Union official gazette for the planning of the Csepel public park, to be one of the city’s largest parks.
Csepel, on the outskirts of Budapest, is traditionally home to brownfield and industrial areas.
Besides transport development and new housing, the development of quality green areas, including more and better public parks with sports facilities, was one of the most important areas of city development.
Photo: www.facebook.com/Fürjes Balázs
The park will include large rest areas, walking and cycle paths, community sport tracks, gardens, outdoor fitness facilities, climbing walls, a skating park and benches.
Terraces will be built on the Danube bank and bridges for walkers and cyclists, he said.
Fürjes said a unique feature of the new park will be wetland areas in which rainwater will be handled in an environmentally friendly way.
The submission of plans for the tender will be closed in May. The winner will draw up plans in consultation with the relevant local councils over two years, Fürjes said.
Air quality has deteriorated in Hungary, mainly in north-eastern Hungarian cities, due to a high concentration of airborne particulates, the National Public Health Centre (NNK) said on Thursday.
The authority declared air quality to be “dangerous” in Putnok and Sajószentpéter, in north-eastern Hungary.
Air quality has deteriorated to unhealthy levels in Kazincbarcika and Miskolc.
Concentrations of particulates are also considered to be too high in other cities and towns nationwide, including in Debrecen, Eger and Nyíregyháza, the authority said.
Vulnerable groups such as children, people suffering from a chronic illness and the elderly are the particular targets of the warning.
Thanks to a lucky camera position, the following video captures a fireball flashing over Sokorópátka.
According to HVG, an unexpected meteor crossed the sky in Sokorópátka, Győr-Moson-Sopron County this week. One of the users of Időkép, Károly Boráros, sent a video to the portal, as his camera was looking right in the direction of the fireball.
A commenter on YouTube wrote that the meteor could also be seen from eastern Poland. He noticed it at 2 AM as he looked out the window at the landscape, but because of the sudden brightness he didn’t know how to identify the phenomenon.
The meteor flashed a greenish colour, but only for a few seconds.
It is important to know that this is not a meteorite: the latter is a natural object from space that is not destroyed when it hits Earth. Anyways, it offered a unique, beautiful sight ??
A provision of Hungary’s waste management law is unconstitutional because it violates property rights, the Constitutional Court ruled after President János Áder referred the law to the court.
Lawmakers passed the law on Dec. 15.
Áder had raised concern about the legislation because it stipulated removal of property rights over waste products but failed to indemnify producers, moreover, allowed an opportunity for making them pay for additional costs.
As we said in December, the president said the bill giving concession groups a discriminatory advantage was also unconstitutional. Ader also voiced concerns over the bill not providing enough gaurantees for cases of concession businesses winding up their operations, which he said threatened citizens’ constitutional rights to a healthy environment, details HERE.
In its ruling, the top court established that the legislation would restrict property rights and cause material damages to the owners.
According to the court, legislation must ensure that the owners are compensated for but at the same time aspects of public service, environmental protection and public health are promoted and EU regulatory requirements are also met.
However, this time, the so-called “geological Trianon” is not man-induced, rather, it is a natural phenomenon. Due to tectonic movements, Hungary is shrinking by about an average soccer field in the east-west direction every year. The same force is slowly eliminating the Mediterranean Sea and merging Europe with Africa.
The magnitude 6.4 earthquake which happened in Croatia at the end of 2020 still has aftershocks; the last tremor that could be felt in Hungary happened about a week ago, and the Petrinja region is expected to continue to experience the aftershocks for days or weeks. According to 24’s previous article, the earthquake was caused by the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates. Most of the time, we do not feel it, but the two gigantic plates are pressed against one another at a speed of about six millimetres a year. This might not sound like a lot, but when accounting for the enormous mass of the two tectonic plates, those are monumental forces, and they are actively shaping the entire Earth’s surface.
This collision will lead to the disappearance of the Mediterranean Sea in about 10-100 million years from now, and you would not be able to tell where the divide between Europe and Africa is.
But what does the nicknamed “geological Trianon” mean exactly for Hungary? Well, at that speed, Hungary is compressed from the west to the northeast, and the two corners of the country get closer to each other by an average of two millimetres per year, which is about an average of 100 by 50-metre area loss every year. Think about it like resizing an image in your documents, but the rate is about a soccer field every single year.
To help us understand what exactly is going on under our feet and what causes it, 24 asked Dr Gábor Timár, a geophysicist at the head of the Department of Geophysics and Space Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University.
Tectonic Plates
Source: Wikimedia Commons / USGS
They break, fall, and deform
The scientist says that the easiest way to think about the tectonic plates is to imagine a river in early spring when the water is flowing, but there is still ice on its surface. The flowing water keeps the ice sheets in constant motion, and along the “faultlines” or where the ice broke, they keep pressing against each other. If there were enough space, some may move away, but those that are colliding create enormous tension; the blocks either crack even further, become congested, or one dives under the other, just like tectonic plates.
Pulling forces
Back to Europe and Africa: the faultline between the continents runs east on the line connecting Rhodes and Crete; south of this lies the oceanic remnants of the African plate. Further west, the collision zone goes around the Adriatic Sea.
The collision of the two continental plates on the latter zone is what created the Alps, the Apennine Mountains, and the Dinaric Alps, and it also caused the recent earthquakes in Croatia.
The Aegean Sea Plate is a small tectonic plate in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its southern edge is a subduction zone south of Crete, where the African Plate is swept under the Aegean Sea Plate. This travels towards Africa at a rate of one centimetre a year and tries to pull and stretch the surface behind it, so a pulling tension is created. The scientist explains that this is what caused the magnitude 7 earthquake in Izmir last October.
Timár says that it is hard to predict what will happen exactly, but the motion and deformation are constant. There are certain events that are believed to take place in the future, but they might not come true. If you are interested in what scientists predict to happen, here is an animation of how the Earth could change over the course of the next 250 million years:
Geological Trianon
The most important thing about Hungary is that the Carpathian Basin is geologically located between the anvil and the hammer. The force generated where the African and European plates meet reaches Hungary from the west through complex tectonic movements along smaller faultlines and pushes the Pannonian Basin east. But in the east – roughly where Ukraine is –, there lies the anvil, the almost immovable Ukrainian Shield.
While the displacement from the west-southwest is 5 millimetres a year, on the north-eastern edge of Hungary, on the Szatmári-síkság (Szatmár Plain), it is almost zero. This means that the plates below Hungary are compressed. The border stones on the eastern and western edges of Hungary are getting closer to one another by an average of two millimetres a year.
This tiny change means that the total area of Hungary decreases by about 5–6,000 m2 yearly. Although it is not the scientific name, this might give you an idea of why it is called the “geological Trianon”.
On the Háromszék–Bucharest line, in the Curvature Carpathians, the remains of the plate that dove under relatively often cause earthquakes of magnitudes up to 7. A memento of the tectonic plate diving under is the volcanic crater home to Szent Anna-tó (Saint Anne Lake), from which magma burst to the surface some 30,000 years ago.
Fortunately, the epicentre of these earthquakes is very deep, about 200-250 kilometres from the surface, so the energy of the shockwaves is most often greatly reduced by the time it reaches the surface, but not always. In 1977, for example, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, mainly affecting Bucharest, caused tremendous damage and killed more than 1,500 people.
The name of Milán Radisics may sound familiar to some readers, as he is a well-known Hungarian photographer who regularly works for the National Geographic magazine, and last year, he was the winner of the 37th Hungarian Press Photo Competition.
But he is relatively new to the field of short films, which makes it all the more impressive that his very first short film titled Art of Pollution has won numerous awards at several prestigious film festivals, such as the Barcelona Film Festival, the Indie Short Awards in Seoul, the Berlin Flash Film Festival, Nature Without Borders in Nassau, Delaware, the Best Shorts Competition, the Indie Short Fest, and the Independent Short Awards in California.
“It’s a great honour to have received so much acclaim for my short film as a first-time filmmaker, but the real joy for me is that this way, the message that we all need to change our lifestyles very, very quickly reaches a lot of people,” the creator said, according to Femina.hu
The short film presents various contaminated areas across Europe through aerial photographs, in an abstract way from a unique perspective.
In just under 4 minutes, the work presents spectacularly, almost artistically, the tailings ponds, mines, and landfills, which are the result of increased demand and industrial overproduction.
By presenting these contaminated areas from this new, unique perspective, the creator wanted to shed light on how little attention we pay to protecting our environment and how much space there is on earth that most of us do not see, so we do not even know how drastically we are destroying our habitat.
However, there is a huge duality in the portrayal, so as we watch the film, we can feel that the areas shining in different colours are beautiful and, at the same time, provide a terribly frustrating sight.
The film is not only visually pleasing, the music of the Hungarian cellist Kalmus Felician, called “Agung”, perfectly resonates with the surprising visual world and plays a very important role in creating the atmosphere.
Air quality has deteriorated in north-eastern Hungary due to a high concentration of airborne particulates, the National Public Health Centre (NNK) said on Tuesday.
NNK declared air quality to be “dangerous” in Putnok, Sajószentpéter and Kazincbarcika.
Air quality has deteriorated to unhealthy levels in Miskolc, Salgótarján and Ajka.
Concentrations of particulates are also considered to be too high in other cities and towns nationwide, including Budapest, Esztergom, Székesfehérvár, Pécs, Tatabánya, Vác, Várpalota and other towns, NNK said.
Vulnerable groups such as children, people suffering from a chronic illness and the elderly are the particular targets of the warning.
Air quality is expected to improve in Budapest over the next few days, the municipality told MTI.
A new overpass will be built in Budapest’s 14th district in order to improve the capital’s traffic flows and allow for the banning of cars from City Park and the extension of the city’s tram 3 line, the state secretary in charge of development projects in and around Budapest said on Friday.
The overpass will have bicycle paths and sidewalks and will link Budapest’s 13th and 14th districts, Balázs Fürjes told MTI.
It is meant to reduce traffic on Hungaria Boulevard, which will in turn help make City Park car-free, he said.
According to the plan approved by the government and the municipal public development council, Kós Károly Avenue and Heroes’ Square will be closed entirely to traffic and a P and R parking lot capable of accommodating 1,500 vehicles will be available at a nearby underground station.
The European Union call for public procurement tenders for the project was issued on Friday, Fürjes said.
The government’s aim with the project is to turn City Park into a more liveable and cleaner area and create more suitable traffic conditions for those commuting via the M3 motorway, the state secretary added.
There was another earthquake in Croatia, this time with a strength of at least five, shortly after 6 PM yesterday evening. The epicenter of the quake was once again close to Petrinja and was detected at a depth of 10 kilometers.
According to Index, the epicenter of the 5.2 magnitude earthquake was not far from Petrinja, near the village of Strašnik. The tremor could be felt for about 10 seconds. Injuries or damage has not been reported on yet.
Last Monday and Tuesday, two stronger earthquakes – 5.2 and 6.3 respectively – shook Central Croatia. The disaster near Petrinja and Sisak claimed seven fatalities and 28 injuries.
For the time being, only estimates are available regarding the extent of the damage.
Yesterday’s earthquake could also be felt in Hungary, a person from Székesfehérvár wrote that he felt the earthquake at 6.03 PM, while the Christmas tree and chandelier swung on the tenth floor.
Residents of Újpest also wrote that at 6.02 PM they felt an earthquake again. It was a shorter and milder movement compared to last week, but they definitely felt it.
In Pécs, three minutes after 6 PM, someone else felt that “everything started to shake again, no clatter, no damage, but you could definitely feel the it strong sitting at the table …”
The five-magnitude quake was later followed by two smaller aftershocks. The first was registered at 7:39 PM. It was 2.4 in strength, detected at a depth of 5 kilometres. The second was felt at 8:20 PM, with its epicenter at a depth of only one kilometer.
A reader from Keszthely felt another tremor at 8:25 PM. He put it this way: “the couch was buzzing under us, and the internet stopped for a few seconds. Also, our cats hid in the apartment…”
Darinko Dumbović, the mayor of Petrinja, said that once again debris had covered the streets, and at the same time called on the locals not to go near the damaged buildings.
According to EMSC-CSEM, there has was also a small aftershock of magnitude 1.2 in Croatia.
In April, Vodafone Hungary announced that it would replace its credit card-sized SIM card holders with ones half the size. The measure aimed at protecting our planet has saved 1.6 tonnes of plastic since April. The initiative is part of Vodafone’s existing sustainability programme. The operator has agreed to phase out old SIM card holders by the end of 2020.
In December 2019, Vodafone set the target of reducing the use of non-essential plastics in its shop network and office premises by half, by April 2020. As part of this sustainability strategy, the operator committed to cutting the size of SIM card holders by half, thus helping safeguard the planet. The measure produced incredible results: by December 2020, the company had saved 1.6 tonnes of plastic by introducing half-size card holders.
Vodafone started the introduction of new, small SIM cards and the phasing out of old, larger cards in most European countries in the spring of 2020, including in Hungary, in April. This initiative alone reduces Vodafone Group’s plastic waste by more than 340 tonnes per year globally. In addition to cutting back on plastic waste, this measure also significantly reduces the Group’s CO2 emissions, as the production and transportation of smaller SIM card holders also results in lower CO2 emissions. For each tonne of plastic, 15 tonnes of carbon dioxide are saved, reducing CO2 emissions by more than 5000 tonnes per year.
In addition to reducing the size of SIM card holders, Vodafone has launched a number of measures to minimise the use of non-essential plastics. In particular, by the end of March 2020, 24 countries had phased out non-essential plastics and single-use items in cases where other, more environmentally friendly alternatives were available.
Another innovation of the operator in 2020 was the phasing out of disposable plastic bags in 7 700 retail shops around the world, and the avoidance or limitation of the use of plastic-based marketing or promotional materials, replacing them with environmentally friendly solutions.
All these initiatives are in line with Vodafone’s goal of improving the lives of 1 billion people by 2025 by halving its environmental impact.
This commitment by Vodafone includes cutting the company’s carbon footprint by half and the procurement of electricity entirely from renewable sources by 2025. In addition, the operator also commits to reusing, reselling or recycling 100% of its network waste, and to helping its customers extend the life of their existing assets.
No restaurants, no theatres, no cinemas, no pubs… What to do with all your free time during the holiday season this year? Put on your comfy shoes and get outside. We have some recommendations for Covid-19-safe and curfew-friendly outdoor activities if you happen to spend the holidays around Budapest.
After you are done with your perfectly Hungarian Christmas feast, for which we have already provided a tutorial, it is time to go outside and get moving to balance out all the yummy treats you consumed. Outdoors activities are perfect for these coronavirus times, as we tend to feel safer in great, open areas where we can easily keep our distance and do not have to get in contact with others. Do not forget your warm clothes, though; the weather is rather moody these days, but there is a chance we will enjoy some sun, too.
It is important to mention that if you go outside, make sure to do it in accordance with the restrictions, keep your distance, and be with those with whom you live in the same household.
Budapest offers many green areas and parks to visit. Some of these are, for example, Margaret Island, Normafa, Városliget, and Hűvosvölgy. You can visit these places, but you should expect to find more people in these popular venues. If you want to avoid the crowds, however, here is what we recommend:
You may have heard about the Bear Farm in Veresegyház, but did you know about the walking trail there? 25 km away from the city, look for the ‘Veresegyházi Tavak Tanösvény’ where you can have a nice stroll around beautiful lakes and nature.
Visit Solymár. In the agglomeration of Budapest, Solymár is accessible both by public transport and car. Climb the Mátyás Hill to the castle of Solymár and check out the view from there. Following the hiking trails in the Buda Hills, there is a hidden 5-metre-long waterfall in the Jegenye Valley, Paprikás Creek area.
Visit Kálvária Hill. You will find three white crosses on the top and an amazing panorama. Hármashatár Hill is also recommended, but be aware that the viewpoint here could attract some fellow nature lovers during the holidays.
Visit the Kárpát-forrás (meaning spring) near Pilisszentlászló. The place is like a hidden version of Normafa. Perfect for families with children, and normally, you can also do a small barbecue there.
Dou you love Szentendre? Then instead of the centre, this time, visit the walking trail nearby. It is called ‘Püspökmajor-tanösvény’ and offers a light hike for a perfect afternoon activity.
Visiting your local park for a little exercise can also be acceptable after curfew, if you really cannot do it other times. And if you prefer indoor activities, read about our recommendations here.
Water management experts have removed more than 400 tonnes of waste contaminated with oil at a rainwater canal at Szigetszentmiklós that leads into the Ráckeve branch of the Danube in the outskirts of Budapest.
Another 14,000 litres of water contaminated with oil and pumped into plastic tanks will be removed by a firm later in the day from the site south of Budapest where a large amount of used oil was poured into the canal last week, according to the national water management directorate OVF.
As we wrote before, the Central Danube Water Directorate was alerted by a member of the public about the massive oil pollution in the Szigetszentmiklós rainwater canal outlet and in the reeds on December 12. The authority said it found “a large quantity of dark, dense hydrocarbon derivative at the estuary of the Ráckeve branch”, details HERE.
It said that
the oil was “present in the water along the entire length of the canal, as well as in the vegetation on a 2,000sqm area with a thickness between 2 and 5 centimetres”.
A police investigation is under way, the authority said.
Water management experts are carrying out the contaminated waste removal in partnership with experts of a local nature conservation authority from the site which is under nature protection, OVF said in a statement.
A rehabilitation plan for a 1,836sqm area of contaminated land has already been prepared, it said.
A climate protection initiative by the Western Balkans Green Center, an institute of the Hungarian ministry of innovation and technology, has attracted a large number of bids from companies, a ministry official said on Wednesday.
The centre has invited applications for support to environmental projects for the second time this year, and the bids submitted reflected the preparedness and competitiveness of Hungarian companies involved in the green economy, state secretary Péter Kaderják said.
The effects of climate change strongly evident in the Western Balkans, with an increase in average temperatures, fires and fluctuating water supplies presenting serious problems, he said.
Another challenge is that energy production in the region relies mostly on fossil fuels, he added.
Recognising this problem, Hungary is promoting the decarbonisation of the Western Balkans as a priority in the programme of its Visegrad Group presidency next year.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the projects’ capacity for job creation is a special consideration, he said.
The winning applicants will support the green development of a region which has strategic importance to Hungary, he added.
The projects, mostly in the field of energy and water management, will be carried out in the six target countries of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, starting in the spring of 2021, he said.
Civilians, locals and environmental activists are putting money together to find out who has caused the most severe environmental pollution of the past 20 years at the Ráckevei-Duna, an important anabranch of the river Danube.
On the course of last weekend, someone spilt a significant amount of dead oil (according to experts around six cubic meters) in the duct collecting rainwater on the corner of two streets in Szigetszentmiklós – at least according to a Facebook post on Sunday that has been already shared by more than 15,000 people.
The author of the post offered half a million forints for finding the culprit, but since then the “blood-money” has reached the double of the original amount.
According to the post mentioned by roviden.hu, the massive amount of oil flowed onto the bed of the anabranch of the Danube. Where the water exits the duct, the reed is currently holding the contamination on the surface of around 3-4000 m2. Fortunately, the oil didn’t get into the watercourse itself; however, there are some areas around the piers in the reed where the used oil is built up to 20-25 cm thickness.
Rikárd Pfeifer – Facebook
The National Directorate of Water told the MTI on Monday that professionals of the institution had successfully retained the contamination and were already working on cleaning it up. The police opened an investigation.
The communiqué pointed out that the institution had immediately ordered a 3rd-degree water quality damage control plan after learning about the contamination.
Rikárd Pfeifer – Facebook
It wrote that on Saturday a local notified the authorities through a phone call about the incident, after which the experts in charge ordered a field inspection and
pointed out that a considerable amount of dark coloured, thick, carbo-hydrogen derivative was present all along the canal and the flora of the bank of the anabranch, in a size of around 2000 km2 in a thickness of 2-5 cm.
According to the announcement, starting from 1 PM, the experts began to take the necessary measures by identifying the carbon-hydrogen derivative, placing out a special material absorbing the oil and starting to pump it off of the water by a vacuum pump to avoid the contamination of the whole of the branch of the river. Their colleagues placed a 150 metre-long inflatable wall submerged in the water around the reed retaining the oil and other absorbent materials between the wall and the flora.
The contaminated water flora needs to be removed completely since its thickness makes it impossible to remove the absorbent material and to keep the vacuum pump working. The whole procedure will last 7-10 days.
The Water Directorate of the Middle-Danube made a denouncement, and the police have started an investigation against an unknown offender – stated the National Directorate of Water.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called for a worldwide “state of climate emergency” to tackle global warming.
Five years after the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world is still not going in the right direction, he told the Climate Ambition Summit co-convened by the United Nations and the governments of Britain and France.
The Paris Agreement promised to limit temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible. But the commitments made in Paris were far from enough to get there. And even those commitments are not being met, he noted.
“Carbon dioxide levels are at record highs. Today, we are 1.2 degrees hotter than before the industrial revolution. If we don’t change course, we may be headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3 degrees this century. Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?” he asked.
“That is why today I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a state of climate emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.”
Some 38 countries have already done so, recognizing the urgency and the stakes. All other countries should follow, said Guterres.
The recovery from COVID-19 presents an opportunity to set economies and societies on a green path in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, he said.
But that is not yet happening. So far, the members of the Group of 20 largest economies in the world are spending 50 percent more in their stimulus and rescue packages on sectors linked to fossil fuel production and consumption, than on low-carbon energy. This is unacceptable, he said.
“The trillions of dollars needed for COVID recovery is money that we are borrowing from future generations. This is a moral test. We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden future generations with a mountain of debt on a broken planet.”
To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, meaningful cuts are needed now to reduce global emissions by 45 percent by 2030 compared with 2010 levels, he said.
This must be fully reflected in the revised and strengthened Nationally Determined Contributions that the signatories to the Paris Agreement are obliged to submit well before the UN Climate Change Conference next year in Glasgow, Scotland.
Britain has pledged to cut emissions by 68 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. The European Union has agreed to cut emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990, he noted.
“These decisions deserve to be emulated. Every country, city, financial institution and company needs to adopt plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and start executing them now, including by providing clear short-term targets. Key emitting sectors such as shipping, aviation and industry must also present and implement new, transformational roadmaps in line with this goal,” said Guterres.
“Technology is on our side. Sound economic analysis is our ally. Renewable energy is getting less expensive with every passing day. Climate action can be the catalyst for millions of new jobs, better health and resilient infrastructure,” he said.
Global economic policies and finance must be aligned with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
It is time to put a price on carbon; to phase out fossil fuel finance and end fossil fuel subsidies; to stop building new coal power plants; to shift the tax burden from income to carbon, from taxpayers to polluters; to make climate-related financial risk disclosures mandatory; and to integrate the goal of carbon neutrality into all economic and fiscal policies and decisions, he said.
The private financial sector must support companies to transform their business models, align its investments with the net-zero emissions goal and disclose its progress.
Asset owners and managers must decarbonize their portfolios. International financial institutions and national development banks must help to mobilize private finance and private investment for developing countries. And developed countries must meet their commitment to providing 100 billion U.S. dollars a year to developing countries by 2020 to help them adapt, he said.
“We are not there yet. Our collective goal must be to surpass the 100-billion-dollar-a-year target in 2021 and to scale up international public finance in the period after. But today, adaptation represents only 20 percent of climate finance. We need a breakthrough on adaption and resilience.”
This is a moment of truth. But it is also a moment of hope. More and more countries have committed to net-zero emissions. The business community is getting onboard the sustainability train. Cities are striving to become greener and more livable. Young people are taking on responsibility and demanding it of others, he said. “Mindsets are shifting.”
Climate action is the barometer of leadership in today’s world. It is what people and the planet need at this time, he said.
“We have the blueprint: the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. But we all need to pass a credibility test: let’s make the promise of a net-zero world a reality now.”
Hungary aims for a fair deal on European climate targets but the government wants to keep public utility fees low, the minister for innovation and technology said on Wednesday, commenting on a report of a planned climate target veto by Hungary at an upcoming European Union summit.
László Palkovics was asked by news website mandiner.hu about a report published by an online media outlet on Tuesday that Hungary may veto not only the EU budget at the upcoming summit but the EU climate targets, too.
Palkovics said Hungary did not have to worry about its ability to reduce emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared with 1990 level, but it considered it unfair if the EU placed extra expectations on poorer countries with a different historical background from western states.
“We’ll propose 40 percent cut in emissions for all member states by 2030 and the remaining 15 percent to be fulfilled by the European community as a whole,” he added.
He said Hungary expected several members to support this proposal since it affected all central European countries.
The government also proposes the cancellation of the planned standardisation of carbon prices in Europe in order to keep public utility fees low.
“Westen wages, in Germany for instance, are significantly different from Hungarian wages, and it would be unfair to burden the same climate protection costs equally between households of the two countries,” he said.
“For us Hungarians, such a move would lead to much higher utility fees,” he added.
Instead, the EU should offer former communist countries a greater share in the modernisation fund in order to help them upgrade their energy systems faster, he said.
