Hungary

18 Member States are at risk of missing one or both of the 2025 targets.

Over the last few years, global energy demand has risen, and this trend is expected to continue. Almost all European Union (EU) countries are suffering from a shortage of energy services. Annually, EU fossil fuel energy production falls; for example, in 2014, gas production fell by 11.2% compared to 2013. Energy imports, especially natural gas, have increased as a result of lower energy output. The EU is still heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports (oil and gas), and the cost of EU energy imports in 2017 increased by 26% (€266 billion).

A report by Ecologic Institute and Climact shows that the draft National Energy and Climate Plans presented by governments at the start of 2019 are in acute need of improvement. They suffer from inadequate targets and insufficient details on the policies and financing needed to move towards net-zero emission economies in Europe. Member States also need to do better in involving their national stakeholders in providing input to the plans, to benefit from their expertise and to get them on board for future policies. Good practice examples exist around the EU to serve as inspiration for the final plans due by the end of the year.

The world today committed to a pollution-free planet at the close of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, with resolutions and pledges promising to improve the lives of billions across the globe by cleaning up our air, land and water.

This Study to assess the implementation by EU Member States of certain provisions of Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste, carried out for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment (DG Environment), investigates the situation in the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) as regards the landfilling of untreated non-hazardous municipal solid waste.

Refractory products are a vital element in all high-temperature processes. The re-use of refractory material has a high potential to reduce waste production and primary raw material consumption.

High value recycling of refractories into the production of new refractories is currently limited due to a shortage of high purity raw materials.

In Hungary, large areas of sandy soils are in the regions of Somogy, Kiskunság and Nyírség. In the region of Nyírség, there are more than 400.000 hectares of sandy soils. These soils are poor in mineral and organic colloids and have a low fertility as determined by low water retention and shortage of macro- and micronutrients.

The growing quantity of wastes increases the need for environmentally sound treatment and utilization of these materials. Sewage sludge is a continuously formed organic waste. Its treatment and utilization depend on the quality of the sludge. If it contains high quantity of nutrients and the organic and inorganic toxic materials and elements are present in low quantity, the sewage sludge could be composted and utilized in the agriculture. In our long-term sewage sludge compost experiment 0, 9, 18 and 27 t ha^-1 compost is added to the soil in every third year. Compost is made from sewage sludge, straw, rhyolite and bentonite therefore it is suitable for improving the acidic sandy soil in the Nyírség region of Hungary.

Member States wishing to cultivate genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have always been a minority in the EU. Only eight out of twenty-seven have experienced transgenic agriculture. Throughout the years, the opposition to this form of farming has become a genuinely transnational phenomenon given that many regions of different European countries declared themselves GMO-free. Moreover, Member States such as Austria, Luxembourg, Greece, Poland and, most recently, Hungary officially banned transgenic agriculture within their borders altogether. France and Germany suspended the cultivation of GM maize MON 810, respectively in 2008 and 2009. In addition, the EU has previously authorized only two GM crops: GM maize MON 810 (authorization renewed in 2008) and GM potato EH92-527-1 (2010), known as the ‘Amflora potato.’ The cautious approach towards transgenic farming is also witnessed by the long and contested process of renewal of the permit to cultivate GM maize MON 810 and the issue of the authorization for the Amflora potato. All this shows that in the EU there has always been a very limited tolerance for transgenic agriculture.

Hungarian municipal solid wastes (MSW) management has developed tremendously over the past 15 years. More than 3,000 landfills and dumps had been closed, just to mention one improvement. However, still, lots of work is necessary to accomplish the EU’s ambitious aim of decreasing landfilling and increasing recycling and composting.

This Outlook can help decision-makers understand the direction in which we are heading and help to assess which policies can support a more circular economy. The OECD stands ready to assist governments in making this transition by designing, developing and delivering better resource efficiency policies for better lives.

Many Central and Eastern European countries are under pressure because of their accession to the European Community (EC) and the related demands e.g. to reach the necessary standards of infrastructure especially regarding the environmental sector. Similarly, Eastern European states that are (currently) not willing or prepared to join the EC such as Ukraine or Russia are starting to develop a national waste management infrastructure.

In recent years the rainfall and moisture conditions, the long term surface water cover and low temperature are resulted together favourable conditions for microbial fungi in Hungary. The species of Fusarium strain are hibernated on the soil and vegetation residues and next year their conidia attack different parts of the plants. Fusarium graminearum is the most important agricultural pathogens in Hungary. This fungi decreases cereal quality (for example maize), furthermore may cause yield loss. Due to its toxin production, the fungi could have dangerous animal and human pathogen effect. Mainly trichothecene type mycotoxins can be found in Hungary; especially the DON (deoxynivalenol) toxin has detected and appeared on cereals. Further authors: A. Nagy, B. Gálya, J. Borbély, J. Tamas - University of Debrecen

A good way for utilizing municipal sewage sludge is its use on agriculture lands after composting. The fate of sewagesludge is unsolved, its large quantity is cumulated on the territories of sewage cleaning plants. We can solve seriousenvironmental problems with sewage sludge treatment, however there are some risks, since sewage sludge may containheavy metals in high rate.In the Nyírség region of Hungary there are mostly acidic sandy soils with low humus content. Because of the decreasingquantity of livestock manure, the subsequent delivery of organic matter into the soils could be problematic. Further Author: Gy. Füleky - Szent István University

The Mecsek-Drava waste management project is the largest waste management development of Hungary. The project budget amounts to €68 million and the project includes 313 municipalities in South-West Hungary. The project was initiated in 2003 and still in implementation phase.

Presentation shown at the WTERT Bi-Annual Meeting 2010 in New York City

This paper aims to define the meaning of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of the European framework and examine CSR in three different European countries. The main elements which encompass the meaning of CSR focus on activities with social and environmental sensitiveness on a voluntary basis.

In Hungary – like in the EU – the legislation and regulation of handling of animal residues are likely to be increasingly stringent. Therefore farmers are trying to find the environmentally sound methods of these processes. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the possibilities which can reduce the likelihood of causing land and ground water pollution.

The increasing ratio of wastewater cleaning results in an increase in the amount of sewage sludge. The environmentally sound utilization of this sludge is an unsolved problem both in Hungary and around the world (Gardner, 1998).

Greenhouse effect is caused by green house gases in the atmosphere which prevent the emission of infrared rays into the space. According to the most accepted scientific theory the increase of greenhouse effect is responsible for global warming and not the other way round.

The author Wolfgang H. Stachowitz found the Pusztazámor landfill side in 2004/2005 while looking for landfills that could be financed as Kyoto-mechanism projects (Clean Development Mechanism projects). At the same time, the operator, FKF Zrt., was trying to find suitable gas engineers and consulters for the planning, designing and projecting which should be responsible for the gas extraction system with utilisation, and assist in the implementation of degasification, with longstanding experience in this field. At Easter 2005, the co-operation was started. The Pusztazámor landfill site was first started up with a floor area of approx. 18 ha for the disposal of waste in 2000. The entire future landfill placement area is divided into three segments with four sections each (see Figures 1 to 3).

In 2001, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published the report "Reporting on environmental measures: are we being effective?" which concluded that more information on the effects and effectiveness of EU measures is needed. Later, in 2002, the 6th Environment Action Programme called for an improvement of the process of policy making through: - ex-ante evaluation of the possible impacts, in particular the environmental impacts, of new policies including the alternative of no action and of the proposals for legislation and publication of the results; - ex-post evaluation of the effectiveness of existing measures in meeting their environmental objectives. - (Session A1: Waste management policies)

Both mineral barriers (natural clay liners) and synthetic materials (geomembranes) are widely used in the environmental applications to avoid spreading of contaminants or to isolate contaminated land from its environment. Geosynthetic Clay Liners (GCL-s) gain greater share against traditional compacted clay liner systems in environmental applications due to some of their favorable installation and technical features or simply because of the lack of appropriate clay mines near the site.

This case study describes the introduction of the British environmental management standard (BS 7750) at the Hejócsaba Cement and Lime Works in Hungary. Driving forces are analyzed, implementation of the system is described, and the company's expectations are outlined.

The Recsk Copper mine was planned to operate in some 1,200 m depth from the surface in the Mátra Mountains in Northern Hungary.