Renewable and fossil resources in Hungary

Magda, Róbert

Keywords: fossil and renewable resources, scarcity, sustainability

In the Hungarian economy primarily relies on fossil fuels – crude oil, natural gas, coal, and their derivatives – which are not only used up rapidly but also pollute the environment and increase our dependency, thus hindering progress. That is why we must pay increased attention to renewable energy resources, which are inexhaustible on the human scale and they pollute the Earth to a smaller extent.
The difficulty for researchers lies in the fact that there are certain barriers to the utilisation of these resources, which holds true especially for Hungary. One factor affecting progress is financing since despite the fact that successive governments have been continuously proclaiming and stressing the opportunities, an adequate system of subsidization that is available for the majority of society has not been created. Seeing the problems of the 12 newly acceded countries the European Union should take actual steps rather than simply state its expectations. The EU should name and assign resources that could form the basis of action.
I believe another vitally important task is to find ways to utilise lower quality agricultural areas. The existing subsidy system encourages the utilisation of the better-than-average areas for such purposes while the less valuable areas remain unused. This is absolutely unacceptable since it affects some 600 thousand hectares in Hungary (200 thousand hectares of which is arable land below 17 Golden Crowns; and 400 thousand hectares are good quality pasture). As these areas require high volume of investment and are prone to unfavourable weather conditions, they are less suitable for agricultural use but are perfectly suitable for growing energy plants. Taking all this into account it is expedient to consider the necessity of the structural modifications in agriculture so that it could adjust to new situations, offering possibilities to utilise less valuable areas, thus contributing to increased employment and to enhance the population retention ability of rural areas.

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