The Clean Air Action Group (CAAG) is an environmental non-governmental organization in Hungary. Founded in 1988 by three local green groups, it is now a national federation of more than 60 NGO’s. Its Experts’ Board consists of about 60 specialists of various professions. The federation is open to anyone who agrees with the aims of the group.[1]
History
Clean Air Action Group (CAAG) was founded in 1988 by three small non-official groups [2] which had been already working for several years on environmental issues: Nature Protection Club of the Budapest University ELTE[3], Green Circle of the Budapest Technical University (BME) [4], and Group of Esperantists for Nature Protection. At that time, it was practically impossible to officially register an independent NGO, so at the beginning CAAG worked informally. Its aim was to combat air pollution in Budapest. Its first main action was a demonstration in one of the main streets in Budapest together with the families living on that street. The demonstration was triggered by a survey of children living in that street, which showed that many of the children had a higher lead content in their blood than permitted for an adult worker. The demonstrators demanded traffic calming and prohibition of leaded petrol.
Since that time, CAAG’s activities expanded both in topic and geographical area. It has worked on greening transport, energy policy, urban management and development, chemical policy as well as the public budget and the taxation system. It has been promoting also better access to information and justice as well as public participation in issues relating to the environment.
In 2009, it already had 132 member organisations (mostly local groups). By June 2018 it had 39 member organisations. The radical decrease is partly due to the fact that in 2010, CAAG could no longer afford to finance its colleagues dealing with member organisations, but the main cause has been the government’s changed relation to environmental NGO’s: elimination of funding by the government and stateowned companies (e.g. Hungarian Railways), increased administrative burdens, media attacks on independent NGOs, etc.
CAAG actively cooperates with other civil society organisations in Hungary and abroad. It is a member organisation of Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), Climate Action Network Europe, European Environmental Bureau, European Federation for Transport and Environment, Green Budget Europe, and Health and Environment Alliance. For many years it has closely cooperated with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in Hungary.
Mission
CAAG is independent from political parties. There is no financial connection between CAAG’s officers/staff members and any political party.
Press and public opinion
CAAG appeared in the press on about 20,000 occasions. CAAG lists these media appearances – without aiming completeness – on a monthly basis. For example, in 2008, more than 1000 news, articles, interviews and statements were printed or broadcast in which Clean Air Action Group was mentioned. In 2017, this number was somewhat over 500. The decrease is partly due to CAAG’s greatly reduced capacity, but mostly to the hostile relation of the government to independent NGOs which is also reflected in the media dominated – directly or indirectly – to an overwhelming extent by the government.[6]
According to a representative national opinion poll carried out by Szonda Ipsos in 2010, 40% of the adult population has already heard about CAAG, and 11% knows well its activities. Among the latter, the support index was 77 points on a scale of 100 points which in Hungary is considered an excellent score.[7]
