Perspectives of integrated climate change and water policies in Hungary

Tamás Pálvölgyi; Lajos Kovács

doi:10.59258/hk.17077

Tamás Pálvölgyi National University of Public Service Faculty of Water Sciences, Department of Water and Environmental Policy https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3675-3867
Lajos Kovács Óbuda University, Doctoral School of Security Sciences

Keywords: Water-related climate adaptation, integrated climate and water policies, climatic and non-climate drivers, risk chain, strategic integration of water to sectoral policies

Abstract

The paper aims to outline the climate impacts induced and transferred by water and the socio-economic factors that exacerbate them. It also seeks to provide a common and integrated policy framework for climate change adaptation and water management. The climatic and non-climate drivers, the risk chains and options for policy integration are assessed in four complex thematic areas: (i) ecosystem services, (ii) food supply chain: agriculture, food processing industry, food safety; (iii) industrial and service activities, energy and water supply, infrastructure, built environment, and (iv) human health and well-being, social justice. In these complex thematic areas, we examine the risk cascade chain, the current state of impacts and expected future challenges within a coherent framework and then make concrete proposals for possible specific areas of policy integration. Finally, in the conclusions, we present municipal-level good practices in water-resilient climate adaptation and formulate the horizontal actions needed to implement integrated climate-water policy.

Author Biographies

Tamás Pálvölgyi , National University of Public Service Faculty of Water Sciences, Department of Water and Environmental Policy

TAMÁS PÁLVÖLGYI, PhD started his career as a climate researcher, then worked in various positions in the Ministry of Environment in the 1990s. From 2000, he was a lecturer at the Department of Environmental Economics at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and between 2016 and 2020, he was head of the Department. Between 2013 and 2017, he was a senior researcher and then deputy director of the Hungarian Geological and Geophysical Institute and one of the founders and then director of the National Adaptation Centre. From 2022, he was an associate professor at the National University of Public Service. From 2023, he is deputy dean for international and strategic affairs at the Faculty of Water Sciences and head of the Department of Water and Environmental Policies.

Lajos Kovács , Óbuda University, Doctoral School of Security Sciences

LAJOS KOVÁCS started his career in the 12th district of Budapest as a civil servant, and from 2006 he continued his public activities as deputy mayor. During his appointment, he was responsible for many professional areas, but during his service, urban development, environmental protection and climate protection were constantly part of his work. In 2020, began his studies at the Doctoral School of Safety and Security Sciences at the Óbuda University, he will research the security challenges of climate change at the settlement level. He is a founding member of the Association of Climate-Friendly Municipalities, founded in 2009, and has been its president since 2014. He tries to represent the issue of climate and environmental protection nationally as an active member of the National Council for Sustainable Development and internationally as an active member of the European Union's Committee of the Regions.

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