Greenkama

Orbán: 10 trees for newborns – The irradiated Trojan horse?

Author: Andre Wolf

Article image Orban: Shutterstock / By Belish
Article image Orban: Shutterstock / By Belish

The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has seemingly made a 180 degree turn in his politics. While climate protection was viewed as an unimportant political area in recent decades, the Hungarian Prime Minister has long since recognized that his new target group is definitely interested in climate protection measures.

The most important things about Orbán and his speech in brief:

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced a climate package. He wants to plant trees, save fossil fuels and promote nuclear energy.

According to the government, the goal of planting ten trees for every newborn baby in Hungary will allow Hungarian forests to grow by 27 percent by 2030 and is part of a comprehensive package of measures to make Hungary 90% self-sufficient from fossil energy sources by 2030 to make it “climate neutral” (we have a fact check on this statement HERE ).

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But there is much more at stake in Orbán's announcements; it is about fossil fuels, but also about nuclear energy. In detail, this means increasing solar energy production tenfold and gradually reducing the number of coal-fired power plants or coal-fired energy and the widespread use of local transport with electric drives, such as electric buses.

What's the catch?

The problem that such a radical rethink poses is the question of how a relatively small country that has been growing economically for decades and has increased energy consumption can suddenly do without coal and other fossil fuels.
What alternatives remain for Orbán? Simple answer: nuclear power.

As of 2018, there are currently four reactor units active in Hungary with a gross output of 2,000 MV, meaning the share of total nuclear power generation is around 50 percent.

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Two additional reactor units, which are scheduled to come online by 2023, are currently under construction. The Hungarian parliament had already approved the construction of the extension in 2009. The blocks each have an output of 1,200 MW and are estimated to cost 10-12 billion euros.

The problem is therefore obvious: While Central Europe is working hard to curb or phase out nuclear power plants, new power plants are being built in Hungary.

Whether Órban's measures help the environment or represent sustainable climate policy is controversial.

Put simply, the argument for using nuclear energy as a “climate-friendly” alternative to fossil fuels is a clear demarcation between left and right environmental policy.

The supporters of nuclear power have been arguing for some time with the environmentally friendly effects of nuclear energy, while opponents emphasize the dangers of an accident (e.g. Chernobyl) and the problem of final storage and that nuclear energy is not considered “clean” energy for them.
In summary, it is clear from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's announcement that even conservative governments have discovered the issue of climate protection and are trying to place it prominently with various measures based on their new target group.

For opponents of this environmental policy, the promise to plant ten trees for every newborn is a Trojan horse that, under the pretext of protecting the climate, continues to promote nuclear energy, which is not considered a clean alternative for the majority of climate protectors.

via

Author: Alexander Herberstein, article image Órban: Shutterstock / By Belish

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The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual articles (not fact checks) were created using machine help and
were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )


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