The Hungarian parliament decided not to vote on a draft climate bill in Monday's final plenary sitting, despite strong support from its environment committee a week before.
Because Hungary is holding general elections in April, the parliament is not expected to sit again before May, delaying the adoption of the bill.
The framework law, which would have created the second such legislative framework in Europe after the UK, was prompted by an initiative launched two years ago by the National Society of Conservationists – at the request of parliament – and attracted the support of over 400 civil society organisations.
On 15 February, 18 of the 19 members of the Parliament's environment committee voted in favour of the draft bill.
But on Monday, by a very narrow margin, the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) decided at the very last minute not to hold the debate on the draft bill during the last plenary session of the 2006-2010 legislature.
The Hungarian national news agency quotes the head of the parliament's economics committee, socialist György Podolák, as saying that it is unacceptable for Hungary to adopt the most rigorous climate protection law in the European Union.
In his opinion, the 80% emissions reduction target foreseen for 2050 would weaken Hungarian industries, encourage plants to relocate outside the country and increase unemployment.
For months, opposition MPs have clashed with the ruling socialists, who strongly argued for the adoption of the bill. But as popular support for the socialists fell to 23% in January 2010 from 47% in May 2006, they were forced pushed to reconsider their position in the midst of political campaigning ahead of the general elections, hence the decision to delay the vote on the bill.
"The Climate Protection Framework law does not lay significant changes for enterprises than the current regulation, but rather gives them new tools," the National Society of Conservationists (MTVSZ) recently said in an open letter aiming to allay the concerns of the Confederation of Hungarian Employers and Industrialists (MGYOSZ).
The organisation underlined that the law provided financial assistance to help all players to restructure thanks to a "payback fund".
MGYOSZ also claims that the reduction targets are unrealistic, as the framework foresees an 80% reduction by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. "This will practically wipe out all industries in the ETS [Emissions Trading Scheme] sector," the confederation argued.
MTVSZ, however, sees this differently and underlines that Hungary has already achieved 30.7% of these reductions, arguing that the targets are thus perfectly reachable and declaring that "the biggest reduction is expected to come from the transport sector, which is not in the ETS".
