OFFICIAL HUNGARIAN RESPONSE TO U.S. NON-PAPER ON

UNCLAS BUDAPEST 000076 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE - JAMIE MOORE, OES/EGC - DREW NELSON AND KATE LARSEN, AND OES/ENV - RACHEL KASTENBERG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV KGHG ENRG HU SUBJECT: OFFICIAL HUNGARIAN RESPONSE TO U.S. NON-PAPER ON CLIMATE CHANGE NEXT STEPS REF: (A) STATE 3079 (B) BUDAPEST 20 ¶1. On February 2, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided an official response to Ref A non-paper post had conveyed on January 14 regarding climate change next steps. The Hungarian response (in the form of a non-paper) is consistent both with what senior GOH officials have told us previously (ref B) and with recent reports that the EU had associated as a bloc with the Copenhagen Accord. Text of Hungarian non-paper follows in para 2. ¶2. Begin Text: "With reference to the non-paper titled "Climate Change Next Steps," Hungary has the pleasure to inform the Embassy of the United States that the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission, on behalf of the EU and its 27 Member States has notified the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a joint letter on 28 January 2010, that the EU and its Member States are willing to be associated with the Copenhagen Accord. Thus Hungary as a member of the EU has associated itself with the Accord as of that date. The EU and its Member States have reconfirmed their full commitment to continue negotiating with other Parties with a view to concluding as soon as possible within the UN framework a legally binding international agreement for the period starting 1 January 2013. The independent quantified economy-wide emissions reduction target by the EU and its Member States, as set out by Appendix 1 to the Copenhagen Accord, has been notified to the Secretariat as 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, reiterating the conditional offer to move to a 30 percent reduction by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emissions reductions and that developing countries contribute adequately according to their responsibilities and respective capabilities. All EU Member States, Hungary amongst them, take up the above commitments also on an individual basis." End Text. KOUNALAKIS