In her address at the UN COP28 climate conference in Dubai, President Katalin Novák said family is not the cause but the solution to the climate crisis, a sustainable future requires a sustainable demography.
President Novák called climate change one of the few issues in which world leaders shared a common understanding and united their forces. President Novák said Hungary expected to achieve its renewable energy target set for 2030 by 2026, adding that the country’s greenhouse gas emission target for 2030 was 50% of 1990 levels. She pointed to the problem of welfare states witnessing a dramatic population decline. She said the correlation between GDP and fertility was obvious, arguing that “the higher the prosperity, the lower the fertility. The more money, the fewer children.” “Climate crisis, poverty, equality, biodiversity, water, and the phenomenon of the demographic ice age can only be understood together. What is the point in protecting the Earth if not for our children?” said Novák.
The president also met Shaikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the mother of the president of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Saturday. Shaikha Fatima bint Mubarak is well-known and respected for her humanitarian activity in the Emirates. Her foundation supports health-care, education and welfare institutions. Katalin Novák and Shaikha Fatima bint Mubarak agreed on the importance of families and the need to support families, “which form the basis of society”, the president’s office said. Novák addressed the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai on Friday before conducting bilateral talks with Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides, Vietnamese PM Pham Minh Chinh, Mongolian president Uhnagin Hurelszuh, King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Polish president Andrzej Duda and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, among others. On Saturday, the Hungarian president attended the national holiday of the United Arab Emirates. December 2, the anniversary of the unification of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the other emirates is being celebrated with fireworks and other spectacles.