Today, the average global temperature of the Earth has increased by 1°C since the Industrial Revolution. This change has a huge impact not only on the climate system but on our everyday life. Just to mention one example, in autumn, 2018, the water level of the Danube – along all its reaches – broke the lowest record ever. In the meantime, practically, the streets in Venice were flooded by knee-deep seawater. All our world is hit by more frequent heavy rains, massive floods, severe droughts, and it suffers from the scarcity of water supplies.

According to the scientific study written by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1.5°C is the critical level, to which society and ecosystems can still adapt. However, to stop climate change at this point, we must decrease radically the emission of greenhouse gases in the next 2 or 3 years. By 2050, we net zero emission should be reached. For this purpose, drastic measures have to be taken in every fields of economy and society, including industry, agriculture, energy production, transport and consumption patterns of citizens.

The North Pole is one of the most affected areas: due to climate change, the most intensive warming is observable here. Therefore, polar bears are threatened as their home is melting continuously. In the last 30 years, the ice thickness has become thinner by 40% and the cryosphere is 2 million km² less. However, not only the North Pole and its ecosystem are threatened by climate change, but our country as well. The long periods of drought and heavy rains are becoming more frequent, so water retention during wet periods is becoming more important: we have to retain precipitation excess for using it during arid summer months.

Now, we have the chance to change our future. Our objective is to draw attention to the importance of climate change and to the urgent need for protecting our natural treasures.

Climate change is one of the most severe problems that humanity has to face with, whereas in fact, humans are the main cause of this problem: greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide) are emitted to the atmosphere, causing permanent global warming in our Planet. To satisfy our energy needs, we are burning more and more fossil, non-renewable energy sources like coal, natural gas and petroleum. More carbon dioxide is emitted than oceans and forests could absorb, and more forests are destroyed than they could regenerate.

In pursuit of welfare, we tend to forget about our own future. Every year, Earth Overshoot Day lands on an earlier date, humanity exceeds resources that Earth could regenerate, in nearly six months. From that point, we destroy our future, our consumption is to the detriment of the ecosystem. Our demand for resources can be measured by calculating our ecological footprint. This metric shows human impact on the Earth: we can calculate the amount of productive land needed to sustain the consumption of an individual or an area by measuring the consumption of energy, food, water, construction material and other services. 60% of the global ecological footprint is the absorption of greenhouse gases.

Naturally, ecological over-consumption is not an eternal phenomenon because when our natural environment is damaging constantly, it can even collapse in the future. Therefore, measures have to be taken immediately at an individual, national and global level in order to reduce these harmful impacts, it is of key importance.

Fossil fuels have provided energy for us in the past and present, however, we have to replace them with the untapped potential of renewable resources. The necessary know-how and technology are available for a long time and yet unused. Solar energy, wind power, hydropower and geothermic heat are inexhaustible resources, not to mention biomass extracted from organic substances.

WWF is working for highlighting the dangers of climate change and the importance of human responsibility by awareness-raising campaigns and educative publications. 

In the field, WWF Hungary has been working for more than a decade in collaboration with municipalities of Borsod floodplain. We collaborate with Tiszatarján, Ároktő and Tiszadorogma in order to restore the natural conditions of the foreshore. Sustainable floodplain land use has been introduced in an area of 100 hectares in Tiszatarján, in cooperation with the municipality, local stakeholders and inhabitants. As part of this new land use project, the Desert False Indigo, this invasive shrub is removed. Furthermore, almost 30 hectares of forest plantation are established and maintained for energetic use. Moreover, Hungarian Greys and Water Buffalos are grazed on floodplains and grasslands. These two animals complement each other remarkably as wetlands and banks are in favour of Water Buffalos, while in the grasslands, Hungarian Greys stop the spread of the Desert False Indigo.

Our projects:

LIFE-MICACC – Water Retention

BIOSCREEN CEE - Biomass Sustainability Criteria for Renewable Energy in CEE

CEESEU - Central Eastern European Sustainable Energy Network, rövidítve CEESEN