Budapest

Hungary

Mission city Pilot city
Hungary National Platform
Budapest Mission City Label
Population 1.75 million
City Area 525 km²
City active since June 2022

Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is the country’s most populous city with the highest population density.

It is home to over 1,7 million people and is a key political centre with many decision-making and administrative functions based here. Its economy is dominated by the pharmaceutical, chemical, gas, and oil industries, with the service sector also being a major contributor. Additionally, Budapest plays a leading role in education, research, and development, and has a population with relatively high income and education levels compared to the country’s average, providing favourable conditions to pioneer climate action.

 

As a major transport and economic hub, Budapest grapples with significant environmental pressures. The city is the centre of a radial system of railways and roads and the country's international airport is located there. The extensive space required for traffic and parked cars, as well as the high proportion of paved surfaces, hinders efforts to mitigate GHG emissions in the city. Moreover, due to COVID and growing suburbanization, the modal split has changed, i.e. the proportion of public transport, cycling, walking, and individual transport has also shifted in favour of private car use.

Key Learnings

Budapest Climate Agency

More than a third of GHG emissions in Budapest can be attributed to residential buildings, making it both the most challenging and the most promising area for interventions. Therefore, Budapest focused on developing and deploying strategic, institutional, and financial support mechanisms and initiatives for building retrofit, with the ambition of accelerating the transition. One of the key objectives of the Budapest CARES Pilot was to establish the Budapest Climate Agency (BCA), a one-stop shop for expertise, fundraising, and coordination of future climate-related programmes. The BCA, officially established on May 2, 2024, aims to promote sustainable energy use, build bridges between different sectors and establish partnerships while informing the public and developing support programmes for building retrofit. Furthermore, the BCA set up a novel pilot tendering model tailored for the renovation of prefabricated panel buildings, called the Budapest Green Panel Program. It is the first city-level scheme in Hungary that integrates loan accessibility criteria into its tendering process, an innovation that moves towards a quasi one-stop shop model.

Presentation: How Just Are Urban Sustainability Transition Plans? 

What is Spatial Justice? Why it matters to sustainability transitions? Why evaluate it? This presentation covers: Methodology (Urban sustainability transition plans; Thematic analysis: VSOA method ; Qualitative analysis: Spatial Justice scoring) Results (Analysis of plans from Belfast, Budapest, Granollers and Rotterdam; Few highlights and comparisons) Conclusion & Limitations 

Detailed Summary: Private Sector Engagement in the EU Cities Mission

This is a summary of a case study that provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of private sector engagement in four Mission Cities: Gothenburg (Sweden) Guimarães (Portugal) Budapest (Hungary) Valladolid (Spain)  These cities are early adopters of Climate City Contracts (CCCs), which are designed to catalyze collaborative climate governance involving a broad range of stakeholders, including the private sector.
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Latest updates from the city

Pilot project spotlight
Visit Budapest City Website Read Budapest Climate City Contract Eskisehir City Profile (Twin City)

External projects

City involvement in related European initiatives