European climate change objectives aim to reduce CO₂ emissions, promote the spread of renewable energy sources (RES), and stimulate energy efficiency (EE). The situation of local and regional governance is crucial in the implementation of community objectives. A multi-year research project was implemented in East Hungary by the University of Debrecen and Eszterházy University. It focuses on the relevance of local communities in the formation of adequate responses to the fore-mentioned challenges. A broad range of primary data collections (questionnaires and interviews) were implemented in two rural counties of the country. The first objective was to elicit existing plans concerning RES and EE at the municipality level and to measure the rate of public participation in the elaboration of them. Secondly, the scopes of the implemented projects were examined in the target area. According to the results, local leaders seem to be committed to environmental issues, but communities rarely possess energy/climate-change plans and projects. The main motivators of project implementation are financial. Because of poor financial conditions, only EU co-financed projects are realized. As subsidies come through the national government, political factors are crucial. From a governance point of view, national and county levels are decisive, and local specialties are not taken into consideration.

Sports facilities play a very important role in educating people about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, and the examination of their spatial distribution is one of the important research areas of sport geography, a field of study becoming increasingly important in recent times. In this spirit, the aim of this paper is to present the spatial distribution of sports facilities in a specific Hungarian sample area, the Észak-Alföld (Northern Great Plain) region, to point out the differences between settlements, as well as the reasons behind these differences. Data received from the local authorities and state administration bodies were used for the preparation of the study, which included the different sports facilities at the settlement level in addition to information found on the Internet. The following conclusions were drawn based on the research. First of all, it was found that the settlement size significantly influences the spatial distribution of sports facilities, inter alia, larger settlements with larger populations boast increased demand and higher purchasing power and also have more enhanced and more diverse sports infrastructure. Secondly, in the case of competitive sports, the size of settlements is less relevant; there are only insignificant differences between the settlements of different sizes. This can be explained by the fact that almost all settlements have their own football pitch. Thirdly, the administrative role of the settlements was also found to be significant since settlements being on higher levels of the hierarchy (district centres, county seats) always have better facilities.

Within the framework of the increasing importance of sports in the last few decades, researchers are focusing more and more on the role of sports facilities in the regeneration of urban areas. The existing studies, however, mainly concentrate on the effects of the investments on the built-up areas, and less attention is paid to the analysis of the relationship between these facilities and the green areas. The primary objective of our—in this context pioneer—research is to analyse the role of the new stadium in the regeneration of one of the most important green areas in Debrecen (Hungary), in Central Europe. We explore the historical influences, the need to foster development and the most significant effects of the investment. Finally, we point out the relationship between the theoretical approaches and our case study in Debrecen.

This study presents the territorial differences in structure of functioning accommodation and food-and-beverage service providers by their distribution based on registered field of economic activity and financial data on the level of local governments within Bihor County that were classified into four potential destination types. Furthermore, the aim of the research is to identify the concentration of business activities based on their turnover in proportion to the population on the level of local governments using the Hoover-index method for the period of 2005–2020. Lastly, another aim is to examine the efficiency of these hospitality service providers using the Hoover index on their sales revenue in proportion to their labor force between 2005 and 2020. The time frame enabled the examination of the effects of two critical incidents: the financial crisis of 2008 and COVID-19, which impacted the activity of the examined firms in hospitality. As a result, both group of service providers showed a significant increase in number of entities, turnover, and average annual number of employees after 2014. That trend was intensively interrupted by COVID-19, which was not the case for the period of financial crisis. The significance of Oradea and Sânmartin were present as central areas regarding business activities of the examined fields, thus crucially influencing the trends of the county. In the case of territorial inequalities, the two categories showed differing trends, as in the case of efficiency, although lodging services proved to show higher territorial inequalities but better performance.