President János Áder has said Hungary should increase green areas that absorb greenhouse gases, mainly by planting trees along roads, motorways and railways.
The president said Hungary has about 40,000 hectares of free space for new trees, which could absorb about 400,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year. The transport sector, he said, was in need of a “major technological shift”, otherwise the targeted reduction of emissions in the sector could not be met by 2050.
President Áder noted that transport accounted for 20 percent of Hungary’s emissions total, adding that the goal was to reduce that ratio to zero by the target date. The president said that in the past nine years Hungarians had bought over 800,000 new cars, and he gave warning that the tendency could result in further significant increases in pollution. New technologies are needed because the reduction target cannot be met by simply improving the efficiency of engines or reducing the fuel consumption of cars, he said.