Energy policy and just transition

Ioanna Theodosiou participated in the Greenwave Festival session titled “Economy, Environment and Piece: the multifaceted crisis, today’s dead-ends and the Green New Deal”. The debate was organized on November 27 by the Ecological Movement of Thessaloniki with the support of Heinrich Boell Indtitute.

The invited speakers included Sven Giegold (MEP and founding member of Attac Germany) who talked about the Green Deal and the mainstream economic policies, Giannis Praskevopoulos (lawyer, member of the Ecological Network) who talked about hydrocarbon exploitation and its connection to the hostile environment in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean and Michalis Tremopoulos, former MEP and city counselor of Thessaloniki, who talked about the geopolitical interests in the Aegean Sea.

The debate was about the geostrategic conflicts in Eastern Mediterranean because of the exploitation of hydrocarbons, the urgent need to transfer to a new post-coal and post-oil era and the role of the Green New Deal in achieving this objective.

Ioanna Theodosiou talked about the energy policy and the just transition in Europe and Greece. She emphasized the challenge of just transition Greece is already facing because of the lignite phase out by 2028 and underlined the importance of the local participation in the governance of the transition, the threat of a lock-in in unsustainable fossil gas projects and the need to avoid “mono-cultures” in the coal regions in order to achieve good and green jobs for the local communities.

The debate was broadcasted live through the facebook page of Greenwave Festival, where you can find its recording. You can also watch the presentation by Ioanna Theodosiou here: