Table of contents

Since the January 2009 gas crisis noteworthy changes have taken place both in the Ukrainian-Russian gas trading relations and in the regulation of the Ukrainian market. In our article we review these changes, assessing their impact on domestic gas prices and the security of gas supply.

The article deals with the question of district heating price changes due to the exclusion of the CHP plants from the feed-in obligation.

In 2009 December in Copenhagen the European Union made great efforts to reach an agreement with other participating countries on the post-Kyoto obligations to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The EU carried on with the negotiations knowing that it had already decided on its own target – a 20% reduction by 2020 – with which its member states have to comply. Moreover, the European Council had already adopted an emission reduction target for 2050, taking into consideration the expert consensus according to which the risk of a dangerous level of climate change can be avoided only if the average surface temperature does not rise more than 2 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels. This requires that developed countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 80–95% compared to 1990 levels. Our article assesses the possibilities of this reduction.

One of the first steps of the new government which came to power in 2010 was to transfer the complete authority to set the price of universal electricity and natural gas service to the Ministry, thereby withdrawing the power of the Hungarian Energy Office to review and modify prices during the year. In connection, we compared the price regulation of universal electricity service in neighbouring EU member states to that of Hungary.