Household heating causes medium to high levels of air pollution in over half of Hungarian settlements, according to a new WWF report on municipal heating systems in Hungary. The report also found that energy poverty is a concern to 80 percent of Hungarian municipalities and that the insulation and the heating systems of municipal buildings are in poor condition.
The report is based on the results of a survey that was filled in by almost a quarter of all 3,188 municipalities in Hungary. The research, which is part of this year’s Earth Hour initiatives in Hungary, showed that:
* one third of the public buildings are not insulated properly;
* half of the doors and windows are in poor condition;
* the state of heating systems is also not satisfactory.
Meanwhile, 60% of the tenders submitted by local communities were unsuccessful in the past 10 years.
“When it comes to addressing energy poverty in Hungary, the resources of the municipalities are unfortunately limited. Most of them have applied to the Ministry of Interior as part of the Social Fuel Programme, which provides firewood for settlements affected by energy poverty,” said Csaba Vaszko, Climate Change, Energy and Water Expert at WWF-Hungary.
Based on the answers to the questionnaire, WWF chose three local governments and supported them to implement energy efficiency measures that are both economic, and environmentally friendly and help address energy poverty.
The full report can be found in Hungarian at:
http://wwf.hu/media/file/1511533746_Futes_es_energiahatekonysag_WWFHU_jelentes.pdf