2nd Regional Energy Forum

Budapest was the host of the 2nd Regional Energy Forum between Oct 7 and 8.
The forum’s chief focus was the education’s role in energy consumption, enegy efficiency, and the energy prices’ impact on the whole society.
In the ‘70s, when Arab countries closed their oil taps in response to Western support for Israel, Western Europe was hit by a serious energy crisis. "But that crisis completely passed by the Central and Eastern European countries, because, as members of the communist trade bloc Comecon, they could rely on the safety net which the Soviet Union offered them in the form of a steady supply of cheap oil and gas," says Marta Szigeti Bonifert, executive director of the Regional Environmental Center (REC), based in Szentendre, Hungary.
Confronted with soaring energy bills and real shortages, Western Europeans quickly learned to turn down their heating, put on a pullover and invest in insulation, she adds. "But citizens in the Central and Eastern European region have been programmed completely wrong. Energy was incredibly cheap, and instead of turning down the heating when it became too hot in winter, we opened a window. In big apartment blocks with communal systems, there was not even the possibility to turn the heating down. But nobody cared, because what belongs to everybody, belongs to nobody."
Thanks to rising energy prices, new government subsidies on insulation, as well as information campaigns on TV, CEE citizens have started to change their behavior. Insulation and double glazing have become booming business. But the general attitude towards the world’s energy problems still differs from Western Europe. “In contrast to the old EU countries, people in Central Europe for instance are unwilling to pay extra for green energy,” Bonifert says.
Awareness differs from country to country, as a recent survey driven in all 25 EU countries proves. “In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, 70% of respondents regard the energy consumption of their car as very important. Hungarians, on the other hand, pay less attention to their cars, but 80% regards the energy consumption of light bulbs as very important,” quotes Bonifert.
The forum was due to be addressed by Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsány on Tuesday, after The Budapest Sun went to press.