Green opposition LMP expects the government to declare a climate emergency in Hungary, the party’s deputy group leader said on Saturday.
Citing the extreme weather conditions of the past few weeks as well as record temperatures recorded in July, Erzsébet Schmuck called on the government to consider her party’s proposals and take immediate action on climate change.
LMP wants Hungary to pledge to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 50 percent instead of 40 percent by 2030, she said.
Further, the party encourages the government to take on “firm and, if necessary, radical” climate change-related commitments at next month’s climate summit in New York, Schmuck added.
She suggested that the government should convene a climate round table meeting of scientists, representatives of various economic sectors, local councils, parliamentary parties and the non-parliamentary opposition Momentum Movement by the end of August.
The co-leader of opposition LMP on Friday expressed hope that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will admit that the climate crisis is a defining national issue.
Commenting on Thursday’s meeting between Orbán and European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, János Kendernay welcomed that climate change was a major issue on the new EC chief’s agenda.
The LMP co-leader told a press conference that he hoped Orbán, too, would concede that meeting the European climate targets was vital from a global, European and national perspective.
Kendernay said it was encouraging that Orbán had “promised to take a pragmatic approach towards the issue”. At the same time, he said LMP had experienced less pragmatism in the recent period when Hungary’s ruling parties had refused to debate the party’s climate change-related proposal in parliament. He said that
When Viktor Orbán talks about the responsibility we have for our children, it would also be important to direct more funding towards fighting the climate crisis”
Featured photo illustration by Tamás Sóki/MTI