Pressing the panic button on climate change

The summit is a joint venture with the Visegrád 4 countries, and awareness campaigns will alert the public, especially young people, to unfavourable environmental, social and economic practices. Past errors will be highlighted plus bad habits of today that may be relatively under wraps for now but will invariably come to the surface. The hope is that much damage can be reversible if we act now.

Education centres and interactive programmes will be presented by some 150 professional exhibitors over almost 20,000 square metres. They will demonstrate scientific and practical ideas and advancements to sustainability and to natural developments. Innovative products and services will be on offer.

The Planet Budapest exhibition will be opened by President of Hungary János Áder, the patron of the event. He said: “The future has already started with our actions of yesterday. Now the question is in which direction it is headed, and it is still up to us how we shape it. Planet Budapest 2021 offers tools and knowledge for this.”

Heads of state and government figures, environmental decision-makers, experts from international organisations and representatives of the scientific and business worlds will discuss issues such as better water and waste management, food and energy production, and cars and public transport. Topics including non-biodegradable plastics and general scrap metal waste and the future development of homes, schools, offices and city life will come under the spotlight. Companies and politicians will be encouraged to raise their environmental awareness.

One positive development that can be pointed to is the start that has been made on cleaning up the Ráckeve-Danube water area along a 57-kilometre section of the river south of the capital, with the removal of contaminated sludge and rubbish. This particular Danube area, alongside the Szabadkikötő Dock, directly affects the daily lives of more than 380,000 inhabitants living in four districts of Budapest, and some 21 offshore settlements within. The shoreline will also be redesigned and completion is set for 2024, making the water safe to swim in again.

Admission to the Planet Budapest 2021 Sustainability Expo and Summit is free but registration beforehand is required.

“The Heroes of the Future Youth Programme” can be visited by school classes in the designated area of “Pavilion E” by prior arrangement. In addition to participating in a 75-minute guided group sustainability programme, classes of 10- to 16-year-olds will have the opportunity to view associated events.

The summit wants to tackle important questions such as what are the business opportunities in promoting environmental issues, how will we maintain new sustainable conditions, will the international communities keep their promises, and can we really live in greater harmony with nature and reduce mass consumption?