GLOBAL WARMING IN HUNGARY

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Until the Communists came to power in 1948, Hungary was an agricultural nation with fertile soil. Industrialisation began, and with it, the seeds of global warming were planted, with unregulated greenhouse gas emissions caused by coal burning plants and cars. Despite later government attempts to implement controls with loans from the World Bank, the real changes occurred in 1990 when a non Communist government led to a free market economy. At first, this switch caused lower emissions. From 19902000, greenhouse gas emissions in Hungary were reduced by 33.5%. From 2000-2004, however, things changed, with a rise of 2.4%. When Hungary joined the European Union in 2004, confident that it could comply with the 6 percent reduction in emissions that the Kyoto Protocol required, an increase seemed more likely to occur. EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT The summers of 2000-2004 saw an increase in temperature accompanied by lower levels of rainfall. Lake Balaton, Europes largest fresh water lake and a major tourist attraction, suffered greatly, losing millions of gallons of water. The shrinking of this lake prompted warnings of economic and environmental collapse; such was the lakes importance to the regions economy. The Danube was also affected by the heat in this period, measured to be at its lowest level in over a century. The wheat crop yield during those years was also lower, at two-thirds its normal level. Although Hungary signed the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification agreement in 1999, by the time it was formally

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announced in 2003, the problem had intensified. In the Homokhatsag district in southern Hungary, for example, ground water levels were nearly ten feet lower than they had been in the 1970s. EMERGENCY MEASURES Dependence on fossil fuels, high vehicle emissions, and a lack of renewable energy sources were problem areas for Hungarys environment, identified by a Yale University study in 2006. The third item is especially of concern, as, in 2007, the European Union announced that all member nations should obtain 20 percent of their total energy from renewable sources, with 10 percent coming from biofuels by the year 2020. To help accomplish this, Hungarys Ministry of Economics and Transportation and the Ministry of Environmental Protection developed a ten-point action plan to combat the effects of global warming, which included the creation of a National Energy Council. The introduction of environmentally friendly tax incentives and a commitment to using more renewable energy sources will also help Hungary meet the new EU standards.