Climate Change class: GHG emissions in Hungary

In 2007, the total emissions of greenhouse gases in Hungary were 75.9 million tons carbon dioxide equivalent (excluding the LULUCF (= Land use, land-use change and forestry) sector). That number is the lowest value in the whole inventory period. Taking into account the carbon absorbing processes in the LULUCF sector, the net emissions of Hungary were 71.8 million tons CO2 eq. in 2007. By ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, Hungary committed to reducing its GHG emissions by 6% compared to the average of 1985-87 as its chosen base period figures. In 2007, Hungary’s emissions were 34% lower than in the base year.

Emissions decreased mainly due to processes in the energy sector. The total fuel consumption in the residential sector decreased by 20% – mainly due to extreme mild winters in past years but the growing energy prices and the support for modernisation of buildings played a role as well (panel insulation program). In contrast with the above trends, the emissions from energy industries grew by 6% in line with the growing tendency of electricity generation. The growth in the transport sector slowed down.
Emissions from industrial processes decreased by 8%. This change is mainly due to the modernization of nitric acid production. Through putting the new acid plant into service in Nitrogénművek PLC, which was the most up-to-date plant in Europe at the time of building, the company’s N2O emission volumes have considerably fallen back.

Emissions were reduced in the Energy, Agriculture and Industry sectors compared to the  base year. In contrast to this, in the waste sector emissions increased by 35% compared to base year.

Since the graphs above show values excluding LULUCF it could be interesting to mention that in 2007, the net removal by the LULUCF sector (mainly by Forest Land) was -4.1 million tons CO2.

It is worth to mention, that the total fuel consumption in the residential/commercial sector has changed significantly: solid fuels almost disappeared and the share of natural gas increased.

The evaluation of the F-gases (HFC’s, PFC’s, SF6′s) shows an interesting trend, although they represent only 1% of the total GHG emissions (as shown in Fig. 3.2) The use of HFCs in the refrigeration and airconditioning industry got widespread and their emission increased ten times. Most of PFCs were emitted by aluminium production (stopped in 2006). SF6 emissions primarily depend on their use in the power generation industry and they show an increasing trend.

To conclude, Hungary expects to overachieve its Kyoto target. Although this should be a good news, the part for critic is the choice for the base period (1985-87), where Hungarian heavy industry was still strong, and high emitter. This means, that not too much will be done to decrease the current emissions as there is no pressure from the Kyoto protocoll.

References:

http://unfccc.int/files/ghg_emissions_data/application/pdf/hun_ghg_profile.pdf

5th National Communication to the UNFCCC (2009)

Comments Off on Climate Change class: GHG emissions in Hungary / 05 Feb 2012 por Ildiko Heim
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