President János Áder has said Hungary could entirely eliminate coal-fired power plants once the capacity expansion at the Paks nuclear plant is complete and the country has an installed solar generation capacity of at least 7,000 megawatts.
During a recent address at Gyula college, President Áder said this move would mean a dramatic reduction in Hungary’s CO2 emissions and could see the end of coal power by 2030.
The President added that besides increasing the capacity of non-polluting energy production facilities the country must also focus on increasing the energy efficiency of buildings, a higher usage of geothermic energy, optimization of transport through information technology and switching to gas-powered or hybrid vehicles.
President Áder said energy-hungry industries such as glassmaking, cement and tire production must undergo a technological change, agriculture should drastically reduce methane emissions and new forests have to be planted in Hungary.
With reference to climate change, President Áder reminded that the hurricane which hit the Bahamas arrived with winds approaching 300 km/h, while two years ago Houston experienced torrential rains on an unprecedented scale.
“No infrastructure is able to withstand such onslaught,” he said, while also mentioning the unprecedentedly large forest fires in the Amazon and Siberia. He concluded his speech by saying that there is an almost 100 percent scientific consensus that climate change is overwhelming caused by human activity.
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