Budapest has recently joined the European Commission’s 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, an initiative aimed at enabling participating cities to act as innovation hubs for pursuing climate neutrality and to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050. To learn more about the Mission and explore potential cooperation areas for achieving a climate-neutral Budapest, we invited the Municipality of Budapest to AmCham’s Policy Forum on the 13th of June.
Orsolya Barsi, Head of Department for Climate and Environmental Affairs, Municipality of Budapest, began her presentation by introducing the effects of climate change in Budapest. Consequently, extreme weather events are becoming more common, taking shape in the changing patterns of precipitation (changes in precipitation days over the seasons, increase in the occurrence of heavy rainfalls, increased length of dry spells) and more frequent and longer heatwaves are expected. Orsolya Barsi emphasized that to combat the effects of climate change, the implementation of adaptation and emission reduction measures are inevitable. The private sector, including companies, contributes to 61% of emissions, encompassing emissions from buildings, private and commercial transport, public transport, and industry.
Therefore, companies play a pivotal role in climate mitigation. Companies can contribute significantly to climate action by optimizing their operations. For example, devising a Corporate Mobility Plan can promote more sustainable and active ways of travel for employees, which also enhances employee satisfaction and well-being by providing convenient and flexible transportation options. Additionally, companies may improve their green and blue infrastructure - e.g. with investing in green roofs, rain gardens or rainwater harvesting infrastructure for climate adaptation -, utilize renewable energy production sources or taking energy efficiency measures. Beyond companies’ own operations, businesses may support initiatives of the Municipality of Budapest’s green infrastructure development endeavors through the Green Budapest Foundation.
In case of further questions or enquires about the Mission, please contact the Municipality of Budapest at netzero [at] budapest.hu (netzero[at]budapest[dot]hu).
Photo source: Canva