02 Apr 2026, 12:00

Hungary

CLEW Guide – Hungary sees solar boom but remains dependent on Russian energy, fossil fuels

Policy Elections & Politics Climate & CO2

Hungary has almost halved its greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, and in recent years greatly increased its solar power capacity. Still, the country to a large extent relies on conventional energy sources, and depends on other countries – mostly Russia – when it comes to oil, natural gas or nuclear fuel supplies. Hungary traditionally has had close political ties with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and strong co-operation continued under right-wing conservative Viktor Orbán.

The Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest. Photo: EC Audiovisual Service / Ferenc Isza

Key background

Hungary aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with EU targets. In the medium term, the country is committed to a binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target of at least 50 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
Emissions decreased significantly, by 46 percent, from 1990 to 2024, which means that the bulk of the reduction target has been achieved. The decrease was mainly caused by the decline of heavy industry following the collapse of the communist regime, the increasing use of renewable energy, the effects of the global economic crisis, and the warming climate, which reduces heating demand. Energy consumption per capita is below the EU average.
Hungary aims to increase the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption to at least 30 percent by 2030. In 2024, this share was 18 percent. The focus of renewable electricity generation is the expansion of solar power capacity, from around seven gigawatts (GW) today to nearly 12 GW by 2030. The country’s economy is highly dependent on crude oil and natural gas: they account for around 65 percent of final energy consumption.
Hard coal and lignite mining in the country decreased by 82 percent between 1990 and 2021. Hungary aims to completely phase out coal and lignite from domestic electricity generation by 2029 at the latest.
Hungary’s economy is rather dependent on conventional energy sources, with Russia as the main supplier. Russia supplied 74 percent of Hungary’s fossil gas in 2024. Within the EU, only Slovakia received a higher share (76%). The share of Russian oil and petroleum products reached 48 percent in 2024 – with Hungary ranking second in dependency after Slovakia (62%) and before Czechia (24%). Hungary relied on imports for 49 percent of its energy in 2024, ranking 16th among EU countries.
Prime minister Viktor Orbán’s government has taken a sceptical, often obstructive stance on the EU’s ambitious climate and energy policies, prioritising energy security and national sovereignty over rapid decarbonisation. Orbán has framed climate policies as “Brussels’ overreach”, appealing to nationalist and anti-EU sentiments. A key point of contention lies in Hungary’s (and Europe’s) energy future, particularly concerning imports from Russia. The EU aims to cut imports of Russian gas, oil and nuclear fuel, which Hungary opposes.
Electricity's share in total energy use has been growing, and it is projected to more than double by 2050, to 42 percent from 20 percent in 2020. New, large industrial investments made by international companies, often with significant subsidies awarded by the Hungarian government, contribute to rising electrification.
Nuclear and solar power are set to become the backbone of the country’s electricity system. Together, they now provide two-thirds of Hungary’s electricity generation. The country remains a net importer of electricity.
Household gas and electricity prices are significantly lower than the EU average, non-household gas prices fall around the average, while non-household electricity prices are above the EU average.

Major transition stories

Hungary faces a landmark parliamentary election on 12 April. The country’s leading political party is the nationalist, right-wing conservative party Fidesz, led by prime minister Viktor Orbán. After 16 years in power, Fidesz now for the first time faces a strong challenger, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar. He is a former Fidesz member, and the ex-husband of Fidesz’s former justice minister. However, he is a newcomer in the political limelight and therefore seen as a ‘dark horse’.
While climate and energy policies in general have not been prominent in the competing parties’ election campaigns, Magyar’s Tisza party has pledged to end the country’s dependency on Russian energy by 2035. Further details have not been disclosed.
Access to oil is a big issue in the country. Oil deliveries through the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline, which delivers Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, were halted at the end of January. Ukraine said the infrastructure was damaged by Russian airstrikes, while Orbán accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of deliberately blocking the pipeline in order to destabilise Hungary ahead of the election. The energy crisis unravelling from the US-Israeli attack on Iran added to conflict. Orbán has said that Hungary will gradually stop the flow of gas to Ukraine until the Druzhba pipeline oil deliveries restart – having already cut diesel fuel supplies earlier this year.
In 2022, the government extended the operating lifetime of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant (NPP, constructed and still fuelled by Russia) for the second time. The decision elicited concerns regarding the safety of the plant, built in the 1980s. Increasing temperatures and decreasing water levels in the Danube have also led to growing concerns in recent years, as the river provides the water for cooling the existing and new reactors (more below).
In February 2026, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom begun building two new units at the Paks II NPP, with a combined capacity of 2.4 gigawatts (GW). The project is eight years behind schedule, and severe cost increases are expected. Although the highly controversial project gained the European Commission’ approval in 2017, Austria appealed against the decision and the European Court of Justice backed this appeal in September 2025. The European Commission said it noted the decision and "will carefully study the judgment and reflect on next steps". The Commission exempted the Paks II project from EU sanctions on Russian energy in 2024.
In Hungary, solar photovoltaics (PV) have shown rapid growth over the past decade, and households are ready to take the next step to install storage system as well: 70,000 applications were submitted on the first day of the government’s Home Energy Storage Programme. Under the programme, individuals can purchase batteries for their home solar system with a non-refundable subsidy of 2.5 million forints (around 6,500 euros). The programme was temporarily suspended after receiving 132,000 applications.
Contrary to solar PV, wind energy expansion has lagged behind, as it has long been sidelined by the Fidesz-led government. Since 2016, it has been virtually impossible to build wind farms in Hungary due to an administrative restriction: wind turbines could only be built at least 12 kilometres from residential areas, practically ruling out Hungary’s entire territory. The main obstacles were removed in 2024 following an amendment to the law. As a result, the government expects wind capacity to increase almost threefold: from around 330 MW today to 1,000 MW by 2030. Installed wind capacity has remained unchanged since 2011.
Over 30 electric vehicle (EV) battery production facilities are either in operation or under construction in Hungary. In 2022, prime minister Orbán announced that “in no time we will be the world’s third-largest battery producer […] and the world’s fifth-largest exporter”. EV battery production plants have received significant state subsidies and tax reductions to develop associated infrastructure: roads, water, electricity and gas supply systems. However, environmental pollution, illegal waste and fatal accidents in battery factories have triggered public outrage in recent years.
In order to achieve greater energy security, Hungary is working to further diversify supply. It plans to increase its cross-border electricity transmission capacities towards Serbia, Romania and Slovakia, and to expand its cross-border natural gas supply links with Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania. Hungary’s government is also exploring the possibility of boosting its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, for example from Italy. Finally, it also aims to expand the capacity of the Adria oil pipeline.
Hungary intends to further deploy geothermal energy, drawing on the country’s favourable geological conditions. “Hungary is already among the top five countries in Europe for geothermal utilisation,” said energy minister Csaba Lantos in late 2025. “Geothermal energy could […] replace more than one billion cubic metres of natural gas by 2035,” Lantos added.

Sector overview

Energy

The energy sector was responsible for 24 percent of Hungary’s GHG emissions in 2022. The burning of oil and fossil gas accounted for the largest share, at 47 and 41 percent, respectively, in 2023.
Emissions in the energy sector have decreased in recent years, mainly due to the decline of coal and lignite use for electricity generation and the increase in renewable power production. Nuclear (42%) and solar PV (24%) were the largest sources of electricity generation in 2024.
The Mátra Power Plant (lignite) is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the sector, accounting for around one-third of the sector's total emissions, and five percent of the total domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Since the government decided to phase out coal and lignite, the lignite-fired Mátra plant is set to be transformed to host low-carbon energy production and energy storage projects.
Hungary is highly dependent on energy imports, especially nuclear fuel, crude oil and natural gas. In 2024, the country’s domestic extraction met 20 percent of its natural gas demand and 16 percent of its crude oil demand. Nuclear fuel is fully imported.
The share of renewable energy in total energy consumption increased from seven percent in 2005 to 17 percent in 2023. In recent years, solar power production and the use of biofuels with a mandatory blending ratio have increased dynamically. Biomass plays a significant role in Hungary’s renewable energy production.
Electricity imports are expected to decrease significantly in the 2030s, as the planned new units at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant come online.

Industry

Industry was responsible for eleven percent of the country’s total GHG emissions in 2021. Among industrial sub-sectors, the largest emissions came from the chemical industry (38%).
Final energy consumption in the industrial sector has increased almost every year since 2009, with consumption in 2021 being 53 percent higher than in 2005.
Over the past ten years, Hungary has become home to multiple battery factories to support the shift to electric vehicles, as envisaged in the EU’s green transition. The Hungarian National Battery Industry Strategy aims to make the country one of the centres of the European battery value chain. According to the strategy, approximately 14,000 jobs have already been created in this sector.
In 2021, Hungary published its National Hydrogen Strategy, which sets out the target of installing 240 MW of electrolysis capacity by 2030. It envisages most demand for industrial use, followed by transport and a small share to blend into the fossil gas grid by the end of the decade.

Buildings

Buildings account for 44 percent of final energy use in Hungary, according to the country’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), a key document outlining plans to reach climate targets by the end of the decade.
Fossil gas accounts for the largest share of household energy consumption (52%), followed by renewable energy sources (21%) – primarily solid biomass, for example firewood for heating. According to the Central Statistical Office, Hungarian households used nearly three-quarters (72.7% in 2021) of their energy consumption for space heating.
There is significant energy-saving potential in the modernisation of Hungary’s buildings, especially in improving their thermal insulation. Despite EU-funded programmes to refurbish buildings, not much has happened to increase the energy efficiency of residential properties. Nearly two-thirds of Hungary’s dwellings were built before 1980, often without energy efficiency standards.
Households have taken up rooftop solar avidly: Hungary now boasts about 330,000 small PV systems with a total capacity of about 8.5 GW, up from around 300 household-sized PV arrays with a combined capacity of 1.4 MW in 2010.
Around 674,000 households – from a total of 4.6 million dwellings – are connected to district heating. Approximately 10 percent of these are supplied by geothermal energy sources.

Mobility

Mimicking EU trends, Hungary’s GHG emissions from transport are on the rise, due to a growing vehicle fleet and increased road freight. However, transport emissions are still below the EU-average.
The sector’s energy consumption has increased since 2014, with a brief drop during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, which was temporary and did not significantly buck the trend, NECP data showed. The sector’s energy consumption in 2021 was 21 percent higher than in 2005.
Hungary is a major European EV production and battery manufacturing hub, with significant investments from German carmakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, as well as from China’s BYD. The country’s automobile sector now employs some 150,000 people and is one of the largest sectors by turnover.
Citing environmental concerns – including pollution, water consumption and safety – local communities across the country are protesting the rapid expansion of EV battery factories.
Hungary is targeting to have 4,800 fuel cell vehicles, mainly buses and vans, in its domestic road transport by 2030. The development of on-road recharging infrastructure is also planned to support hydrogen use.

Agriculture

In 2023, the agricultural sector contributed 11 percent to national emissions. Over half (54%) of agricultural emissions were related to animal husbandry, and the rest (46%) to crop production. In the former category, the most significant source of GHGs was cattle farming, while more than half of crop production emissions came from the use of fertilisers.
Hungary is a large agricultural producer, with 5.3 million hectares (ha) of its territory under agricultural cultivation.
Farmers face increasing challenges and damage as a result of climate change and extreme weather events. The year 2025 was characterised by drought, and 2026 has brought little relief. The government is trying to remedy the situation primarily with ad hoc measures: a Drought Protection Task Force set up in 2025 provided drought damage compensation worth 37.4 billion forints (around 97.8 million euro) for farmers. However, strategic drought prevention measures are lacking or insufficient, thus volunteers and farmers are increasingly taking steps through grassroots actions to prevent the dramatic drying of their lands.

Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF)

Overall, the sector is a net carbon sink due to the CO2 sequestration of forests resulting from afforestation and sustainable forest management in recent decades. The average carbon removal capacity of the sector is four million tonnes of CO2. In 2023, forests sequestered 5.8 million tonnes of CO2.
In order to maintain and increase these natural CO2 sink capacities in the long term, in line with the National Forest Strategy, the government intends to significantly increase the share of forest and other wood coverage. The strategy sets the goal to reach a 27 percent forest cover level by 2050. This means that an additional 350,000-400,000 hectares need to be afforested.
Climate change has already caused serious damage to forests, which disrupts the planned course of forest management. According to the damage reports for 2021, forest damage extended to 109,422 hectares that year, of which 79 percent was biotic and 21 percent was abiotic. Abiotic damage was primarily caused by drought (worsening through climate change), and the vast majority of biotic damage occurred due to insect damage (oak lacebug). The destruction of ash trees has also become increasingly serious in recent years due to a disease caused by the invasive ascomycetes fungi. There is currently no effective intervention.
Sustainable forest management as well as climate neutrality conflict with the biomass need for heating. According to estimates published by the economic weekly HVG, 62 percent of the 7.5 cubic metres of timber harvested in the country each year are used as firewood mostly in households and also in inefficient biomass power plants.

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