BCSDH is also participating in the establishment of the National Climate Assessment

The Ministry for Innovation and Technology is establishing a national report on climate change as an overview and as a form of decision-making support.

As the first step in preparing the report, an open conference was held on 28 November, 2018, with the purpose of informing stakeholders about the concepts related to the assessment, identifying the domestic scientists and scientific organizations that are focusing on climate change, and assessing decision-making needs regarding adaptation and the reduction of emissions.

Irén Márta, Managing Director of the Business Council For Sustainable Development in Hungary (BCSDH), stated in her speech that the greatest challenge for the second half of the twenty-first century is to make the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. In order to achieve this, BCSDH defined four recommendations for companies in 2016 which include raising the assessment of the risk  and opportunities of climate change to a strategic level, and also introducing carbon footprint analysis.

She highlighted that responsible companies are committed to supporting the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the creation of a carbon-neutral economy. Half of BCSDH’s member companies already have strategies for reducing their GHG emissions.

Based on a survey  by BCSDH of more than 100 companies, Irén emphasized that the business sector is paying attention to the security of supply, on which stricter legal requirements will have a great impact, as will extreme weather conditions, the increasing costs of adaption, and climate change.

Background to the national report

The Ministry for Innovation and Technology is establishing a decision-supporting, solution-oriented, comprehensive national report that supports domestic decisions and their implementation regarding climate policy issues, and moreover, for supporting more relevant, scientifically well-established domestic knowledge. It is planned that this will be based on the Assessment Report made by the Nobel-peace-prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s national reports, which are based on global reports, appear to be effective instruments for creating consensus between various scientific areas in many countries, thereby representing a sound basis for supporting  national, or regional political and economic decision-making regarding climate change. The conference is the first step in the process of creating such reports.