News

The Natural Heritage Mission of the Interreg EURO-MED programmes, in collaboration with the Organization for Natural Environment and Climate Change (OFYPEKA) and the National Technical University of Athens, celebrated European Maritime Day “In My Country” by organizing a workshop on “Governance solutions for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Mediterranean,” on Thursday 3 July 2025. The Green Tank and the ARTEMIS project were represented by Dimitra Syrou, while Alice Wittevrongel from Plan Bleu, the lead partner of the ARTEMIS project, coordinated the working group on the theme of 'Restoration'."

Following the decision of the Green Fund’s Board of Directors under the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which convened on July 2 2025, co-funding was approved for The Green Tank for the LIFE EFFECT project for the year 2025. The LIFE EFFECT project (LIFE Effective and Fair European Carbon Trading: Ensuring EU carbon pricing and…

In May 2025, the carbon intensity of power generation dropped to a 10-year low (214 g CO2/kWh) thanks to the rise of renewables. However, a total of 6.34 million tons were emitted in the first five months of 2025 due to a surge in gas use. With only 3.856 million tons left in the sector’s carbon budget for the year, the country is off track to meet its 2025 NECP target. Notably, had there been no RES curtailments during the first five months (975 GWh), the power sector would have emitted 0.54 million tons less, more than the total emissions

The Green Tank’s ninth newsletter for the developments of the last six months (January – June 2025) related to the Just Transition of lignite regions in Greece and in Europe has been published.

975 GWh of RES were rejected cumulatively in the first 5 months of 2025 (383 GWh in May), exceeding the total curtailments for the entire year of 2024 (899 GWh). Despite these high curtailments, RES production in May reached 2,219 GWh. This brought the average price on the energy market down to 81.9 €/MWh - the lowest in the past 12 months. Gas-fired generation ranked second, with a moderate rebound to March levels (1,457 GWh), while the interconnection balance returned to net exports after March, totaling 139.7 GWh.

The European Commission's Just Transition Platform has set up a Working Group on the future of Just Transition in Europe and the financial instruments that can support it. The Working Group has launched a discussion paper with policy proposals for the continuation of Just Transition in the post-2027 programming period.

Green Tank's comments on the 1st revision of the Just Development Transition Programme 2021 - 2027, and recommendations for the better use of resources for the benefit of people in the lignite areas and the achievement of climate neutrality.

According to data from Entso-E, the hours of zero lignite production in the first half of 2025 increased by almost 12%, reaching 817 hours compared to 732 hours during the same period in 2024. The vast majority of these zero-production hours (809 hours) occurred after the end of the district heating season in Western Macedonia (May 15, 2025).

Presenting to the Special Standing Committee on Environmental Protection of the Hellenic Parliament on June 25, 2025, Nikos Mantzaris, policy analyst and co-founder of The Green Tank, highlighted Greece’s remarkable progress in renewable energy (RES) and the urgent need to scale up storage infrastructure.

A new brief by The Green Tank analyzes the provisions of European legislation regarding capacity remuneration mechanisms (CRMs), outlines the technologies that other European countries are choosing to support via these mechanisms, and examines how these choices have so far affected consumers’ costs.

At the Energy Transition Summit: East Med & Southeast Europe – held on 17 June 2025 in Athens and organised by FT x Kathimerini – Nikos Mantzaris, Senior Policy Analyst and co founder of The Green Tank, joined experts to explore how Greece and the broader region can harness the region’s rich solar and wind potential.

Nikos Mantzaris and Ioanna Souka participated as speakers, on 3 June 2025, at the event “Energy Transition & Electricity,” organized by Clima21 and the Aegean Energy & Environmental Bureau (EPEGA) at ESIEA. The event focused on critical issues for achieving climate goals and developing clean technologies.

A historic high was recorded in gas consumption in the first five months of 2025 (29.06 TWh), mainly due to its use for electricity generation (65% of total gas consumption). In May 2025, domestic consumption reached 4.27 TWh, representing an 8.9% increase from April 2025. However, this marked the second consecutive month of decrease compared to May 2024. Despite the recent announcement of the EU’s plan for full decoupling from Russian fossil fuels, the trend of Russian gas imports in Greece is upwards.

The CAN Europe report titled "Community Engagement and Fair Benefit Sharing of Renewable Energy Projects" introduces 14+1 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) designed to assess and enhance local community involvement and equitable benefit distribution in renewable energy initiatives. Building upon this framework, Greek organisations Electra Energy and The Green Tank advocate for integrating these KPIs into national policies and corporate practices to strengthen public participation and acceptance of renewable energy projects in Greece.