Green hurdles for new Greek government

26/10/2009

Under the Environment, Energy & Climate Change Ministry the country is making strides to protect the environment.

By Maria Paravantes for Southeast European Times in Athens -- 26/10/09

Firefighters attempt to extinguish a blaze in the suburb Athens suburb of Pikermi in August. Greece's new government has promised to tackle the web of environmental problems that contributed to recent fires. [Getty Images]

Air pollution, contamination and depletion of water resources, waste management, deforestation and dealing with climate change are the main environmental issues facing Greece's new Socialist government, which is already formulating policies ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December.

Despite ratifying the Kyoto protocol, Greece has still failed to take measures that will generate energy for future generations in sustainable, environmentally friendly ways.

The forest fires that charred the country add an additional dimension to the issue. With Attica's last remaining forests and their wildlife ravaged by blazes last August, Athens and other metropolitan areas are now faced with new environmental realities that have already begun to take their toll.

Scorching summer temperatures, flash-flooding, polluted air and dwindling water supplies are starting to become the norm rather than the exception. Although the idea of conservation is making its way into the Greek mentality -- environmental awareness as a concept emerged in the mid-1980s -- there is still a long way to go.

Recycling is still below the EU average. Of the 5.5m tonnes of waste produced annually, only 350,000 tonnes of it is recycled.

For quite some time, Greece has preferred to pay EU environmental fines rather than tackle the problems with tough measures.

Prime Minister George Papandreou, who won by a landslide in the October 4th snap elections, has repeatedly expressed his determination to place Greece among the "greener" EU states. He aims to produce approximately 18% of the country's total energy from renewable resources by 2020, compared to 8% now.

He also established an Environment, Energy and Climate Change Ministry -- placing young environmentalist Tina Birbili at its helm.

She met with foreign ministry officials earlier this month to set the groundwork for the nearly two week-long Copenhagen summit that begins on December 7th.

"We plan to meet with social partners and all parties involved and prepare to actively take part in the summit, supporting the EU's stance and hopefully becoming part of the process," said Birbili.

She invited environmentalists, such as the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace, among others, to submit proposals to help the country become greener.

Birbili plans to promote conservation through education and research and protect the remaining forests through a land registry, while halting illegal urban development in areas ravaged by wildfires, among other items on her agenda.

Furthermore, the government plans to include CO2 emissions as a taxable criterion for automobiles.

In the meantime, one bright example of how the country is becoming greener can be seen in Grevena, where biomass -- sawdust, straw, olive pits, manure, fishing waste, etc. -- will be turned into energy, primarily for heating purposes, via a 65m-euro private project.