Hungary, a member of the European Union, is taking strides to cut emissions, but still has a long ways to go, the head of the International Energy Agency said.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol met in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to review a national report on the country's energy sector. The report found Hungarian emissions are "well below" levels from 2008 even as the economic picks up steam.
"Hungary has made progress in diversifying its energy supplies and increasing competition in the energy sector, but there is still more to do on both fronts," Birol said in a statement.
The national report found Hungarian growth in renewable energy has stalled out in recent years and the country could make better use of market-based mechanisms as an incentive.
Members of the European Union are called on to cut energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent and use renewables for 20 percent of total energy mix by 2020. Hungary lags behind some of its peer economies, some of which have already met their 2020 goals, with a renewable mix of less than 10 percent.
The IEA report found biofuels dominating the energy landscape in Hungary at 92 percent of the total for renewable energy. The investment climate, meanwhile, has been complicated by a series of sector-related taxes that has created a climate of uncertainty.
A so-called Red Notice was canceled in November for Zsolt Hernadi, the chairman of Hungarian energy company MOL. Croatian authorities brought the case on charges that Hernadi had bribed former Prime Minister Ivo Sanadar in 2009 to get a stronger role in the nation's energy sector.
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