The Clean Air Action Group

The Clean Air Action Group (CAAG) is one of the best-known environmental NGOs in Hungary. Founded in 1988 by three local green groups, it is now a national federation of 126 NGO’s. Its Experts’ Board consists of more than 100 specialists of various professions. It is open to anyone who wants to help clean up the environment.

Our main fields of activities are the following:

• greening the state budget
• sustainable transport
• sustainable energy policy
• sustainable urban development
• protection of green areas in cities.

The activities of CAAG include public awareness campaigns, consulting, publishing and advocacy at the local and national levels.

Some examples of our activities are the following:

• CAAG prepared a number of important studies on transport and the environment, energy issues and also economic policy, all designed to influence decision-makers and inform the public.
• CAAG is the most often cited environmental NGO in the national press. In 2003 more than 400 newspaper articles, television and radio reports appeared about its activities.
• CAAG has organized many nation-wide and local public awareness campaigns. For example it collected 20,000 signatures petitioning for better transport in Budapest and handed them to the local government, which helped to stop further deterioration of public transport. CAAG initiated and carried out together with other NGOs, trade unions and local governments a successful campaign to save the railway branch lines (about 50% of the national railway network).
• Since 1992 CAAG has worked out each year proposals for greening the state budget and campaigned to get them accepted by the government. A number of their proposals (e.g. the introduction of green taxes on several products) were accepted by the Parliament.
• CAAG played an important role in making the transport policy of the World Bank much more environment-friendly.
• CAAG's Information Office has helped many citizens to solve local environmental problems.

The representatives of our member organizations and experts as well as the elected officials of CAAG meet every second week to discuss current issues, to elaborate viewpoints on environmental protection, and to take action.

We publish a monthly environmental magazine, LÉLEGZET (Breath) in 3500 copies.

CAAG is a member organization of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) and Climate Action Network Europe (CAN-Europe). We cooperate with other international environmental organizations, like World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Greenpeace, CEE Bankwatch Network and World Carfree Network, as well as with a number of national NGO’s in various countries.

In the past few years our activities were supported mainly by

• the Hungarian Parliament,
• the Hungarian Ministry of Environment,
• the European Commission (PHARE),
• the Rockefeller Brothers Fund,
• the United States Information Service,
• the Swedish NGO Secretariat on Acid Rain,
• Hungarian Railways.

 

Clean Air Action Group
Mailing address: Budapest, Pf. 1676, HU-1465, Hungary
Office: 1075 Budapest, Károly körút 3/a. III: 2.
Phone: +36 1 411-0509, 411-0510, 266-0854
E-mail: levego@levego.hu