News

GGGI Supporting Hungary to Achieve Climate Neutrality

Budapest, Hungary – In May 2020, GGGI signed an agreement with the Ministry for Innovation and Technology (MIT) to support the delivery of a refined National Clean Development Strategy (NCDS) by the end of the year. The NDCS or Long-Term low greenhouse gas emission development Strategy (LTS) will set the path toward climate neutrality at national level by 2050 and will be submitted to the UNFCCC.

‘Hungary, based on the long-intermediate-and short-term strategies and action plans can gradually become a climate-neutral country without risking economic growth and putting a financial burden on Hungarian families.’ – added Péter Kaderják, State Secretary for Energy and Climate Policy.

In January 2020, the Hungarian Government adopted a draft NCDS which serves as the basis for the detailed elaboration of the final document by the end of this year. GGGI’s role consists in consultations and modeling to further explore low-carbon scenarios transparently and help shape the vision and pathways towards climate neutrality.

Under Article 4.19 of the Paris Agreement and Decision 1/CP.21, Parties are expected to formulate and communicate their LTS by 2020. At European Level, the Governance Regulation requires member states to develop LTS with a perspective of at least 30 years. On June 4, as one of the first seven states, Hungary has passed its Climate Protection Law setting the climate neutrality target by 2050.

GGGI works with international and national partners and experts in the project and incorporates sectoral and ministerial feedback into the workstreams. So far, the first LTS Workshop, the Inter-ministerial Committee on Climate Change meeting, and the Climate Breakfast series have provided a consultative platform for sectoral actors and different stakeholders to share their views and inputs on the NCDS or LTS. GGGI’s modeling approach integrates key indicators of social, economic, and environmental perspectives and externalities to forecast and simulate future scenarios and to anticipate challenges. The system dynamics modeling approach integrates various sectors, assesses the costs of suggested measures and use previous output data and modeling results.

Under this new agreement signed in May 2020, GGGI is also providing policy support to Hungary under the European Green Deal. This agreement complements the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the MIT and GGGI in 2019 which led to the establishment of the GGGI European Office in Budapest, Hungary.