Hungary’s environmental conditions have improved with the help of increased public awareness of environmental issues, Sándor Fazekas, Hungary's farm minister said.
Fazekas said 3,000 tons of waste were collected by volunteers in four days at the end of April, the government launched a program to increase awareness of energy savings on heating and it purchased and put to use air pollution measuring devices under a 1.8 billion HUF Swiss-Hungarian project.
MTI reports that the OECD will be starting an evaluation of the effectiveness of Hungary’s environmental policies at the end of 2016. The ministry has set up an inter-ministry committee to oversee the process, Fazekas said.
Fazekas added that some 100,000 hectares of protected land would be restored under the Competitiveness Central Hungary operative program and an environmental operative program by 2023, spending 34.4 billion HUF.
He said the environmental impact study for the Paks 2 nuclear upgrade project has been completed and the environmental authority issued the required licence for the project on September 29.
Benedek Sallai R., a lawmaker for the opposition LMP party, said that environmental awareness-raising was more diverse earlier and he also called attention to the noise pollution suffered by residents living near Liszt Ferenc International Airport, as well as diminishing green areas in the country.