The transition to renewable energy is a nonsense fairy tale - HOPE sustainability conference at the University of Pannonia

The second HOPE Sustainability Conference was held at the University of Pannonia on Thursday (Photo: vehir.hu)

The event was mainly attended by EU diplomats working in the field of environment and sustainability in the framework of the Hungarian EU Presidency, who were able to learn about the activities of the University of Pannonia in this field through an interactive and experiential programme.

Dr. János Abonyi, Rector of University of Pannonia

Dr. János Abonyi, Rector of the University of Pannon, welcomed the participants, stressing that Pannon is a medium-sized university, which can still play a significant role in advancing sustainability. He expressed the hope that the experience of the day would contribute to the work of the participants. This was also the wish of Dr Helga Farkas, an environmental diplomat, who said that one of the main benefits of the conference was the opportunity for networking for both the host institution and the participants.

Dr. András Gelencsér, Senior Researcher at the National Laboratory for Climate Change

The opening presentation was given by Dr. András Gelencsér, Senior Researcher at the National Laboratory of Climate Change. According to the researcher, reality is in stark contrast to the mass illusion created by corporate and political communication. It's a simple, easy message to reduce climate change to carbon emissions, and to claim that if we stopped emitting, all our problems would go away and we would live happily ever after. It is a fairy-tale world," he noted. He said that the ITCC report shows that CO2 emissions have not decreased at all since the Paris Agreement was adopted, we are not on the path to decarbonisation at all. Nor could we: we would have to produce the equipment needed to harness renewable energy sources using the fossil-fuel infrastructure currently available, and even if we did, there is no prospect of a zero-emission alternative in the most polluting industries: aviation, maritime transport or the defence industry. We will never be able to fly electrically powered aircraft on any significant scale, or to convert our military to electric-powered vehicles.

More, than 100 EU diplomats attended the event

According to the researcher, space mining is not the solution to the depletion of the Earth's resources, because at the moment it is also very difficult to land on the Moon with equipment - and that's just landing; establishing a permanent production and reliably returning it to Earth at a scalable rate is a long way off.

Participants visit the optical waste sorting facility

During the rest of the day, the participants could visit the University of Pannonia's units dealing with sustainability, circular economy and environmental protection, and participate in sessions on topics such as green technologies, preparing for extreme weather caused by climate change, waste management, water issues, or sustainability communication and education.

Photo by Kornél Gáti, University of Pannonia