“The time has come for Christian-conservative green politics: Europe must practice a climate policy that does not place the burden of the costs of climate neutral economic transition onto the poorest countries”, Minister of Justice Judit Varga underlined in an op-ed published on Monday on the Politico European news portal.

The Minister does not attribute the success of green parties in Western Europe to the fact that they have found the most effective method of fighting against climate change, but rather to the fact that these parties have until now essentially played the field without any adversaries with relation to climate policy. “However, instead of grand, easily communicable and badly thought out undertakings, it should set goals that could lead to permanent results”, she wrote.

According to Ms. Varga, bilateral environmental treaties such as the 2015 Paris Agreement only have a limited effect on countries that are the greatest polluters, and which usually fail to fulfil the commitments they have undertaken according to these agreements. “Primarily, individual states should develop their own system of environmental protection regulations that takes into account the local environment and local requirements, and which conforms to the given country’s sustainable development”, she said.

“The realisation of this requires European solutions that do not force citizens to shoulder the cost of the changes in the long term, but which take into account people’s individual needs and enable them to play a supportive role in the transition”, the Minister emphasised.

She quoted recent statements by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with relation to the issue, according to which “the costs of the economic transition aimed at climate neutrality must primarily be paid for by the countries and large corporations that are the greatest polluters, and not by those who are the least capable of doing so. Measures that make people’s lives more difficult, such as tax, price and utility cost increases, are not sustainable in the long term”.

According to the Minister, the fair financing of the transition can also not place an undue burden on disadvantages regions and cannot draw financial resources away from cohesion policy; it must be realised from separate budgetary revenues.

“The effective fight against climate change and the true solution of other environmental protection tasks require a new approach compared to ‘green liberalism’, which Europe’s Christian-conservative parties are capable of putting forward”, Ms. Varga underlined. “Conservatism has always placed special emphasis on supporting rural communities and local initiatives. Rural communities, which typically depend on the environment, have always played a decisive role in transferring important ecological knowledge, values and know-how from generation to generation”, she pointed out. Quoting Nobel Prize-winning Austrian naturalist Konrad Lorenz, she emphasised: “Farmers do not forget what many city-dwellers do, namely that natural resources can be depleted”.

“Europe must support traditional communities and must encourage city-dwellers to be more sensitive with relation to local problems, make responsible consumer decisions, purchase mainly locally-produced goods, and give up their consumption-orientated lifestyle”, the Minister declared.

Ms. Varga also quoted a report published by oil company ExxonMobil according to which the transition to a “carbon neutral society” cannot be successful without nuclear energy, because renewable energy sources will be incapable of replacing it. “However, individual countries must be free to decide what instruments they would like to use to achieve climate goals”, she recommended.

“It is in the spirit of these ideas that Hungary has launched a new National Climate Strategy that is founded on Christian-conservative values, and which has the support of a high level of political will”, the Minister of Justice emphasised.

(MTI)