At the ASEM Foreign Ministers' meeting on Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said that in many ways there is no consensus about the migration crisis in Europe, but it is agreed that the root causes have to be treated – and climate change is also one of them.
Péter Szijjártó said that 25-30 million people have lost their homes due to natural disasters caused by climate change; without substantial progress, this number could grow to 100 million by 2050. He said that the Hungarian government has contributed HUF 1 billion to the international fund which supports projects aimed at managing the effects of climate change.
Regarding the ASEM conference, the Minister pointed out that the immigration crisis is not unrelated to Asia, because many asylum seekers come from Asia to Europe. The Minister also addressed the subject of next month’s UN climate summit in Paris. He said that a successful summit is of vital interest to Europe: both in creating an agreement which is legally binding and which guarantees that the global temperature change will be below two degrees Celsius.
“If we aren’t be able to handle this and give a proper answer to the challenge, the immigration pressure on Europe could increase further in the future”, Mr. Szijjártó said. He added that if migration continues to flow in an uncontrolled and unregulated way in the future, it will be an unbearable burden on Europe.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade drew attention to the fact that the immigration crisis has three basic causes: armed conflicts in countries near the EU; poverty; and climate change. The latter cause should not be forgotten, he said.