The National Building Energy Strategy (NBES) was presented by the Ministry of National Development (MND) and ÉMI Non-profit Limited Liability Company for Quality Control and Innovation in Building within the framework of a professional conference in Budapest, on 6 November, 2013.

The event was attended by Attila Imre Horváth and Ferenc Hizó, Minister of State and Deputy State Secretary for Development and Climate Policy and Key Public Services. Social consultations on the document are to begin in late November.

By working out the National Building Energy Strategy, the Ministry of National Development aims to prepare a mid-term comprehensive professional programme for the period 2014-2020, Imre Attila Horváth emphasised. Based on a survey of the building stock, the document is aimed, by setting the right directions, to create a firm professional basis for launching a broad building energy support programme in order to facilitate meeting Hungary’s commitments in energy efficiency.

Forty percent of energy use in Hungary is related to buildings and two thirds of this to heating and air conditioning, considering which the National Energy Strategy passed in 2011 already set out to reduce the energy use of buildings by 30 percent by 2030. The National Building Energy Strategy (NBES) enables the attainment of a permanent and sustainable reduction in energy use.

It is the government’s aspiration that the building stock, mostly outdated as regards energy use, should be refurbished by owners as efficiently and economically as possible, whereby households’ maintenance related overhead costs could be reduced and harmful environmental effects caused by emissions could be cut down. Hungary is in a good position in meeting the commitments related to renewable energy resources by 2020; their share came up to 9.3 percent last year, which was the target objective for 2016.

In addition to the coordination with ÉMI Non-profit LLC, the Ministry involved acknowledged scientific and practical experts and workshops of the field of building energy in the technical preparation of the NBES. The Strategy is based on the most comprehensive building energy survey ever conducted in Hungary, for which the energy data of almost 23 thousand buildings were used. Based on the Strategy, a wide-scale building energy support programme may be launched in the first half of next year, to be financed from revenues from the international carbon dioxide quota trade and the operational programmes of the EU programming period of 2014-2020.

Social consultations on the National Building Energy Strategy are to be launched in late November; the Development Ministry and ÉMI LLC expect active participation by the profession as well as the public.

(Ministry of National Development, Communications Department)