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15 years - Full of Energy!
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Our motto: Civilised Energy, Civilised Society
The Energy Club’s Vision of Future Society
By 2030, the Energy Club’s staff would like to bring about sustainable and clean energy management in Hungary and Europe. We are working for a world in which people live in a clean environment and, drawing on local resources and the help of diversified energy systems, consume energy in a civilized way.
3.
The Energy Club’s Mission
Energy Club was founded in 1990 with the aim of contributing to the birth of a civilized energy-consuming, sustainable society in Hungary and on the European continent. To this end we take part in the preparation of energy policy decision making, offer expert consultation and information services as well as showing alternative solutions through our pilot projects. Our areas of activity: climate protection, popularising renewable energy and energy efficiency and strengthening nuclear safety.
4.
Spreading information
Since the beginning we have considered an important duty to develop the capacity of other national and international non-governmental organizations, as well as to facilitate coalition buildings. AGREE.NET –a regional coalition, The Green Energy Network in Hungary, the ELÉG – Energy Efficiency Program (1995/96), FAIRE (1997/98), and the SEE seminars (2001/04) were all founded with the support of our capacity development program. Targeting the future generations we have developed educational materials on sustainable energy and use the “train the trainers” method to educate teachers on how to use these. Our demonstration projects show that these technologies are really working.
5.
Energy Policy
A particular characteristic of Energy Club is, due to our professional record and prestige, how we take an active part in the formation of the energy policy. We are not only a member of different commissions but also a decisive and accepted actor in this economic sub-system, evaluating and contributing to the materials and legislation prepared by the state administration.
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Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency and savings are the first steps towards sustainable energy management. As long as Hungarian homes use twice the energy needed to ensure the inhabitants’ comfort, as they do in neighbouring Austria, the use of renewables will not be economic. It is not accidental that since the beginning we have put a great emphasis on spreading knowledge about this issue in the widest circles.
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Renewable Energy Resources
Renewables are the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels. We use the word ‘renewable’ as the availability of sun, wind and biomass is basically limitless, whereas reserves of crude oil, natural gas, uranium and coal are exhaustible. Moreover, renewables do not pollute the environment and through their use a decentralised energy system can be brought into being that over the long term is beneficial to the local economy.
8.
Climate Protection
The last few years has seen the birth of scientific certainty in relation to global climate change. Climate change that stems from the emissions of greenhouse gases has become measurable, tangible. The problem - due to its nature - demands a united global response; moreover, every responsible decision-maker at the regional and local level and every single person must act with this in mind.
Carbon dioxide emission is one of the World’s greatest problems and its main source - combusted fossil fuels – points to the energy and transport sector as the most environmentally destructive industries. As such, all the Energy Club’s programmes are part of the fight for global climate protection.
9.
Nuclear Energy
Paks Nuclear Power Station generates 36 per cent of the electricity produced in Hungary, when all four reactors are in operation. At the same time, this only accounts for 12 per cent of the overall national energy consumption. Recently many concerns have come up in connection with the operation and safety culture, to obtaining fuel, extending the lifetime of the soviet-design reactors and the treatment of nuclear waste. The case of Paks is not the only example in the region, showing that splitting atoms is not a safe and clean way of producing electricity.
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International Relations
Today environmental problems are international issues; hence an environmental organisation cannot work effectively inside the borders of just one country. Since its inception, Energy Club has taken care to build close relations with similar groups both internationally and in the narrower Central and Eastern European region. Moreover, through out the years Energy Club has grown into a kind of regional centre.
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