Hungarian President János Áder (pictured) called President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement “disrespectful to future generations and irresponsible” at a lecture held at a high school in Székesfehérvár, reports the Hungarian state news agency (MTI).

President Áder argued that since the Industrial Revolution the US has the biggest historical responsibility for the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and has the biggest air pollution per capita in the world. Áder underlined that the Paris Agreement must be executed even without the United States because there is no other choice: “There is no other planet where we could move to.”

The harsh words from Áder – who has taken on the role of a fervent environmentalist in recent years and for a short time was even rumored to be preparing to run for UN Secretary-General – are interesting given the fact that Fidesz (his former party) has not made environmental protection a top priority since regaining power in 2010. In 2011 the Fidesz-KDNP government abolished the institution of Ombudsman of Future Generations, whose jurisdiction covered, among others, environmental protection.

Furthermore, opposed to European trends, the Hungarian government taxes renewable energy technologies instead of supporting research and development in order to eliminate competition with the soon to be built nuclear plant at Paks, financed from a Russian state loan and implemented by Russian state corporation Rosatom.