The Green Tank participated in the open event of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) General Assembly 2022, sending a strong message for the country’s commitment to the green transition and the necessary steps for a sustainable future.
In response to the question whether “we can we afford to postpone the green transition due to the energy crisis”, Ioli Christopoulou stressed that the climate and energy crises leave no room for postponement and that despite the difficulties, the means and resources for the implementation of the green transition are available. In fact, the green transition concerns also the industry, a sector that consistently shows high greenhouse gas emissions over time, despite the fact that its green transformation with forward-bearing investments in its decarbonization is key for its competitiveness. She then pointed out the necessary steps that are needed to implement the green transition, focusing on the energy sector:
- Acceleration and no further delay of the lignite phase out.
- Abandonment of hydrocarbon extraction projects.
- Rapid independence from from fossil gas – regardless of the country of origin – starting from electricity production sector, which accounts for about 70% of Greece’s gas use and it is where economic alternatives are already available, such as renewables.
On renewables, she further underlined that they should be properly sited and complemented with energy storage infrastructure and utilization of Greece’s huge energy saving potential.
The statement by Ioli Christopoulou on behalf of the Green Tank was shown during the live discussion between the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the President of SEV, Dimitris Papalexopoulos, moderated by journalist Pavlos Tsimas, in the presence of the President of the Hellenic Rephttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La_8QJ9osJoublic, Katerina Sekallaropoulou.
The open event of the SEV General Assembly took place on June, 15 2022.
The video of the green transition thematic section is available here (in Greek):
You can watch the whole event here (in Greek):
