Hungary unveils 'Christian democratic'-based climate strategy

Hungary unveiled a climate change strategy Thursday that has been described by Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a "Christian democratic" approach to tackling global warming.

Published on the government's website, the National Energy and Climate Plan sets out targets including 90 percent carbon-neutral electricity production by 2030, mostly from nuclear and solar energy.

Orban said last week the strategy was "Christian democratic-based" -- a label which he often uses for his policies, including his fierce opposition to immigration from Muslim countries.

Critics have described the latter stance as far-right and nativist.

Orban told reporters at a press conference last week that "the protection of the created environment and of nature just on a biblical basis is an especially Christian democratic policy".

"Conserving nature for our children and grandchildren can be imagined as conserving something that was created by God," Peter Kaderjak, a state secretary for the environment, told AFP afterwards.

"It's a general principle but the strategy's concrete objective is to create a clean sustainable country where you can have a good life," said Kaderjak.

The strategy cements a recent change of tone by Orban and his ruling Fidesz party, whose politicians have often seemed ambivalent on climate change.

Last year one of Orban's senior ministers called Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg a "sick child" and her street movement "repellent" to ordinary Hungarians.

Pro-Orban media commentators also regularly cast doubt on the link between human-induced global warming and extreme weather events.

"Orban doesn't want climate change to be solely a leftist topic, either in Hungary or in Europe," Agoston Mraz, an analyst with the Nezopont Institute in Budapest, told AFP Thursday.

"He is trying to build up a conservative right-wing green politics as a counterbalance," said Mraz.

After initially vetoing the EU's carbon neutrality goal for 2050, Orban signed up last month after securing a concession from Brussels over its reliance on nuclear energy.

An upcoming climate action plan will include pledges to clean up rivers, ban illegal rubbish dumping, and equip all cities with electric buses by 2022, said Orban.

'Moment of crisis' has come on climate change: Attenborough
London (AFP) Jan 16, 2020 - The world is facing the "moment of crisis" on climate change and cannot delay action any longer, British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough warned in an interview broadcast Thursday.

"We have been putting things off year after year, we have been raising targets and saying 'Oh well, if we do it within the next 20 years," he told the BBC.

"The moment of crisis has come, we can no longer prevaricate."

His comments come after the United Nations revealed the past decade has been the hottest on record, and warned higher temperatures were expected to fuel more extreme weather events.

Attenborough said immediate action was required. "We can't go on saying 'but there's hope' and leave it to next year. We have to change".

The veteran presenter said there had been a "huge change in public opinion" about climate change, particularly among young people, and politicians must listen.

"We have to realise that this is not playing games, this is not just having nice little debates and arguments, then coming away with a compromise," he said.

"This is an urgent problem that has to be solved. And, what is more, we know how to do it. That's the paradoxical thing, that we are refusing to take steps that we know have to be taken.

"And every year that passes makes those steps more and more difficult to achieve."

- China carbon cuts -

Attenborough is renowned for his ground-breaking wildlife programmes for the BBC, and has become increasingly vocal about the impact of climate change.

His hugely popular TV series "Blue Planet II" was credited with raising global awareness about the damage caused by discarded plastics to the world's oceans and marine life.

He spoke out on Thursday to launch a year of special coverage on climate change by the national broadcaster, which coincides with Britain's hosting of the COP 26 climate summit in November.

Attenborough said a game-changer in tackling global warming would be if China announced major steps to curb its carbon output.

"Everybody else would fall into line... That would be the big change one could hope would happen," he said.

The UN's World Meteorological Organization revealed on Wednesday that the past decade has been the hottest on record.

It warned that higher temperatures had already had dire consequences, from record sea levels to increasing ocean heat and extreme weather, and these were set to continue.

"The year 2020 has started out where 2019 left off -- with high-impact weather and climate-related events," WMO chief Petteri Taalas said.

He pointed in particular to the devastating bushfires that have been raging in Australia for months.

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UN warns more extreme weather ahead after hottest decade on record
Geneva (AFP) Jan 15, 2020
The past decade has been the hottest on record, the UN said Wednesday, warning that the higher temperatures were expected to fuel numerous extreme weather events in 2020 and beyond. The World Meteorological Organization, which based its findings on analysis of leading international datasets, said increases in global temperatures had already had dire consequences, pointing to "retreating ice, record sea levels, increasing ocean heat and acidification, and extreme weather". WMO said its research a ... read more