Before its establishment, the Budapest climate agency

On September 29, 2021, the European Commission launched its climate-neutral and smart cities mission, which aims to

By 2030, one hundred cities located in the territory of the member states of the European Union should become climate neutral. As they write, cities cover only 3 percent of the earth’s surface, but they are responsible for more than 70 percent of greenhouse gases. Therefore, cities and their citizens must address the climate emergency.

As part of the mission for climate neutral and smart cities, the EU wants to support 100 cities to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, later to serve as examples, centers of innovation and help other cities to reach the EU’s main objective of becoming completely climate neutral by 2050 .

The EU leaders meeting in the framework of the European Council agreed in December 2019 that the EU must achieve climate neutrality by 2050, which means that only as much greenhouse gas enters the atmosphere as nature – i.e. forests, oceans and the soil – can absorb it.

To reach this equilibrium state of net zero emissions, EU countries will have to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and find ways to offset the remaining and unavoidable emissions. In December 2020, they also agreed to set an intermediate station, an intermediate goal, which became the reduction of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than half by 2030 compared to the 1990 level.

According to the Telex report, Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, called the decision of historic importance, as he said, “Europe is leading the fight against climate change.” According to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the new climate goal “secures the path to climate neutrality set for 2050”.

As has been the case in recent times, the council was only able to accept the 2030 emission reduction target for the second time, because at the previous meeting in October, the Eastern and Central European member states, especially Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, could not reach an agreement due to financial concerns.

At the time, the news was mainly about

Poland and Hungary waved to veto the European Union’s 2021-27 budget and the recovery fund made necessary due to the coronavirus. Warsaw and Budapest would have blocked the two programs worth 1,800 billion euros because the two governments did not like the decree on the rule of law mechanism, but the threat turned out to be a bluff.

The agreement on the recovery fund and the budget, on the other hand, gave impetus to the plans to switch to green energy.

The European Commission announced the tender to the cities on November 25, 2021, for which applicants were expected until January 31, 2022. 377 cities from all EU member states started the competition. After evaluating the submissions, the Commission announced on April 28 the hundred cities that can participate in its mission. As it turned out, cities from all 27 member states made it to the top 100, and 12 more cities joined the mission as part of the Horizon Europe research and innovation framework program (2021-2027). From Hungary, in addition to Budapest, Miskolc and Pécs were also selected.

“It is a huge success and at the same time an opportunity: the European Commission will give priority support to Budapest in order to achieve the 2030 climate goal,” stated Gergely Karácsony. As the mayor explained, “the essence of the mission is to make these cities experimental and innovation centers whose good examples and practices can be adopted by all European cities, so that every city in the Union can be climate neutral by 2050 at the latest.” The commission earmarked 360 million euros for the implementation of the program.

The capital’s “Budapest CARES” program received 1.5 million euros in support as part of the mission of 100 climate-neutral and smart cities launched by the European Commission. The program, as it is written here, is aimed at the creation of the Climate Agency, which supports Budapest’s climate goals, and within this, the acceleration of residential building energy and efficiency investments. According to the plans, with the help of this, the energetic renovation of many Budapest properties and homes that have been neglected for decades can be realized.

Due to outdated heating solutions and energy waste due to poor thermal insulation, Budapest homes have become one of the biggest urban carbon dioxide emitters and air polluters. Between October 13 and November 10, 2023, as part of the program, a representative survey of the capital’s housing stock began.

As written in the proposal, it is one of the tasks to be performed by the climate agency

• the development of the residential advisory network,
• development of a building energy pilot program,
• searching for funding sources, for example monitoring tenders, writing tenders, exploring market funding opportunities,
• developing collaborations and partnerships, and
• professional contribution in communication and attitude formation.

Ambrus Kiss said in a previous interview that Ámon Ada was chosen as the head of the agency.

According to the mayor, in 2019 the new city administration committed itself to a forward-looking climate policy, which means that Budapest will be prepared for the changes related to climate change, so that it can face them, and also that they will reduce the city’s emissions.

One of the first decisions of the general assembly reconstituted in 2019 was to hold a climate emergency.

According to the proposal, the capital declared on the basis of the Basic Law and the Act on Local Governments that Budapest also considers it an obligation to take action against climate change, and that the capital government and its companies will ensure full disclosure of relevant information in their operations.

Regarding the declaration of the state of emergency, Karácsony now noted that it was a symbolic step, but behind it there had been conscious construction in recent years. As part of this, the Department of Climate and Environment was created, which was involved in many international projects and created different strategies along which Budapest can reduce emissions. The most important task of the Climate Agency, confirmed by Karácsony, is to support the energy efficiency modernization of the housing stock in Budapest with all possible means.

Karácsony concluded his speech by saying that they are still working to bring EU funds to Budapest, but they are also preparing to

with the help of the climate agency, with the support of the capital and district municipalities, it is launching some flagship programs to see how the model works. According to Amon Ada’s hopes, they want to establish a norm-creating institution, but he is also confident that even the establishment of the climate agency will be exemplary.

(Featured Image: Unsplash)