Mária Bakosné Böröcz

The Interpretation of Circular Priorities to Central European Business Environment with Focus on Hungary

Abstract In recent years, there was an increase in economic concepts which defined various concepts for the European Union to leave the economic depression behind. The idea of circular economy boomed into the sight of European Union policy makers in the beginning of 2015. The notion introduced a holistic system planning approach for EU development initiatives. This paper introduces the essential background for the interpretation of circular economy and presents the main priorities throughout its implementation. The size of the European Community leaves many opportunities for the reconsideration of circular processes. The study focuses on circular applications in Hungary which substantially differ from the Western-European practice. The different wage and development levels of the member states in some cases might appear as a possibility to extend product life cycles which otherwise would end sooner. The analysis aims to find the reasons for the variant operations and examines how the extended spatial perspective from national levels to the EU level influences the transition to circular economy.

A természeti környezet értékelésének vizsgálata kinyilvánított preferenciákból becsült érték meghatározásával

According to the current European and global trends the consideration of environmental values in decision making processes is turning to be a more and more significant aspect in political level. The number of the ecosystem valuation cases is highly increasing and the application surface for the certain methodologies includes local, national and global level examinations as well. Our research aims to discover a broader horizon of social and economic values of a project which targeted environmental improvement in the first place. The present paper introduces a case study for the economic valuation of natural capital through revealed preference methodology. The subject of the examination is an actual project concerning the revitalisation of the Szabadság Island side branch of the Danube near Mohács. Kulcsszavak: környezetértékelés, kinyilvánított preferencia, természeti erőforrások, vízgazdálkodás JEL besorolás: Q51, Q57 LCC kód: GE195-199, GE300-350

Long-term Green Innovation Opportunities Within the Hungarian District Heating Sector Towards 2030

Abstract Natural gas is still the primary input of the Hungarian heating and cooling systems, therefore it still makes most of the overheads. One of the main obstacles of a competitive district heating system is the public opinion which still considers this service more expensive than the traditional heating forms. According to the absolute numbers this assumption might be valid but from a more accurate economic perspective, heat production has more aspects to stress. Most people forget about the simple fact that the maintenance costs of natural gas based systems are rather outsourced to the consumer than in the case of district heating. Furthermore, the uneven rate of the fixed and variable costs of this technology does not prove to be optimal for service developments. Investigating the future tendencies highlight that encouraging the efficiency improvement of district heating and the spread of technological innovation in the sector does not belong to the top priorities. Still, avoiding this problem it could lead serious deadweight losses in the case of the heating sector.