While temperatures are rising in Hungary, the government blocks the EU’s 2050 carbon goals

’There is no reason to rush’ a high-ranking Hungarian government minister said when he was asked at a press conference why Hungary blocked the European Union’s 2050 zero carbon goal. The words were uttered by Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, who explained why Hungary changed its previously stated decision and joined the Czech Republic and Poland in vetoing the EU climate goal. According to the government of Hungary, this climate goal would be ’too costly’ for Hungarian citizens and 2050 is too far anyway.

However, if we look at climate data from Hungary we can clearly see that this country should not turn a blind eye to climate change. If we look at climate data since 1901, we see that in the past century there were only four years where the average temperature was lower than in the first year of the 20th century. Moreover, the last such year was 1956.

Also, the average temperature in Hungary today is 3 degrees Celcius higher than it was in the first year of the last century. In the meantime, there were much fewer cold days.

If we take a closer look at the data from Budapest, we can see that nine out of the ten hottest time periods from since 1901 happened after 2007. If we look at the specific months, we can see that the spring and summer months are warmer than they used to be and that winter months are milder – there are fewer extreme cold months.

Also, there are more and more days in Budapest with temperatures rising above 25 and 30 degrees.

Annual average temperatures in Budapest since 1901

Purple: minimum average; Orange: maximum average; red: annual average

Difference between annual average temperatures in Budapest and 1901 as a base year

Purple: minimum average; Orange: maximum average; red: annual average

Change in the annual min average, max average and average temperatures in Budapest since 1901

Purple: minimum average; Orange: maximum average; red: annual average

Change in monthly average temperatures in Budapest since 1901

These charts show how the monthly average of daily average temperatures changed

Daily average temperatures in Budapest, 1901-2018

We highlighted the days with an average temperature above 25 and 30 degrees

Written and created by Attila Bátorfy

Source of the data: National Centers for Environmental Information

See the entire project on the site of our data team, Atlo, with more data from rural towns in Hungary. You can read the original, Hungarian version of this story here. English version by Anita Kőműves.