Methane emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades, a recent study by the European Environment Agency points out . Methane is one of the main causes of global warming and air pollution, but despite this, few people know about it. The Clean Air Action Group is therefore working with a wide range of experts to develop concrete proposals to reduce methane emissions in Hungary.

A methane molecule heats the atmosphere 84 times more than a carbon dioxide molecule. Methane has so far been responsible for global atmospheric warming of about 0.5 degrees Celsius. Methane also indirectly causes air pollution by contributing to the formation of ground-level ozone. Ozone is extremely harmful to health: the EEA calculates that if ozone concentrations were reduced to the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended levels in 2022, 70,000 premature deaths in the EU could be prevented in that year. Ozone also damages vegetation: the EEA has found that EU agriculture suffers €2 billion a year in damage from ground-level ozone.

The main sources of methane emissions are waste and wastewater management, agriculture (especially meat and dairy production) and the energy industry.

Gábor Bendik, environmental lawyer at Clean Air Action Group, said: “The European Union has pledged to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2020. To this end, in 2020, it published its strategy to reduce methane emissions and in August 2024 it published the regulation on reducing methane emissions from the energy sector (the EU Regulation is a legislation that all member states are obliged to implement). Unfortunately, member states have so far failed to make a real effort to reduce their methane emissions. But there is no time for procrastination. Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have been roughly constant for the last 800,000 years, but have increased 3.5 times in recent decades.”

Csaba Tóth, Policy Officer at the NGO, added: “It is the government's responsibility to help reduce methane emissions through awareness raising, appropriate regulation and economic incentives. Individuals can do the most by informing and educating themselves on the issue, not wasting food, composting and reducing their consumption of meat and dairy products.”

The Clean Air Action Group, as part of a broad international cooperation, the Methane Matters Coalition, is developing concrete proposals for the government that, if implemented, could reduce Hungary’s methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The study is expected to be completed by autumn 2025.