No. 9 May 1997 Supplement

Country Study News

The Newsletter of the UNEP Collaborating Centre on Energy and Environment

Hungary

The Hungary country study of the UNEP/GEF project is being carried out by the Department of Environmental Economics of the Technical University of Budapest, which has been nominated as the project executing agency by the Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Regional Policy. The Hungarian study builds on previous climate change mitigation work done through Dutch-Hungarian bilateral assistance, cooperation with the CICERO institute Norway, and the US Country Studies Program.

The primary objectives of the Hungarian study are to concentrate on the following mitigation options and policy instruments: energy efficiency, forest plantations/bioenergy, and economic instruments such as carbon/energy taxes. The Technical University of Budapest is establishing collaborations with various other Hungarian institutions to address these issues in detail. Collaborating institutions include universities such as Budapest University of Economics and the University of Forestry and Wood Sciences in Sopron, and private engineering/consulting organisations such as EGI­Contracting/Engineering. The first national workshop, bringing together all participants in the Hungarian study, was held on 30­31 October 1996 in Budapest.

As part of the active cooperation among the Hungarian team, the UNEP Centre, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the USA, three Hungarian experts from the Technical University of Budapest and the Ministry of Environment and Regional Policy spent one month as guest researchers at LBNL in Berkeley, researching energy efficiency programs and implementation issues in the USA. Their guest research also involved meetings in Washington DC with the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Project Coordinator: Tamás Pálvölgyi

UNEP Centre Project Manager: Robert Redlinger