BUDAPEST. MARCH 18. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - Hungary's Parliament unanimously approved on Tuesday a new National Climate Change Strategy for the 2008-2025 period, a document that focuses on energy efficiency by industry and households and on lowering greenhouse gas emissions, according to a statement by the Environment Ministry.
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"It is unprecedented that all five political parties in parliament would support such an initiative," Environment Minister Gabor Fodor was quoted as saying in the statement.
The new strategy, finalized by the government a month ago, emphasizes European Union requirements on climate change, including an 18% cut in Hungary's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels, increasing the ratio of renewable energy sources from the current 4.5% to 13% by 2020, and lowering energy usage by 1% each year between 2008 and 2016.
The strategy was prepared on the basis of projections that Hungary will be especially vulnerable to climate change in the coming decades, with each Celsius degree temperature rise globally translating to a rise of
1.5-2 degrees in Hungary.
Among others, the strategy calls for lower energy consumption, support for low-energy or low-emission household and industrial appliances, and for raising climate change awareness across society.
Among the government's resources for financing the strategy, some HUF 110 bln will be available in the 2008-2013 period to support increasing use of renewable energy and encourage energy efficiency, through the government's EU-funded Environment and Energy Operative Program (KEOP). Funds under the government's Green Investment System (ZBR) will also be available in the period. The ZBR, created to finance household and institutional energy efficiency development, will have roughly HUF 11 bln at its disposal from the sale of Hungary's excess carbon-dioxide emission quotas and from auctioning quotas to Hungarian industrial plants. The latter should bring annual proceeds of HUF 3.3-3.7 bln, according to the ministry.
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