News

The European Commission launched a public consultation on a new legislative initiative for CO₂ markets and infrastructure, as part of the EU strategy for industrial decarbonisation. The Green Tank submitted its views, stressing that the development of CO₂ markets and infrastructure can play a meaningful role in the industrial transition only if it is strictly limited to processes that are genuinely hard to decarbonise.

A new scientific study examines the reasons why Greece’s system of protected areas continues to face serious challenges, despite repeated institutional reforms and improved administrative coordination in recent years.

In 2025, domestic gas consumption reached a historic high of 70.2 TWh. 70.3% came from the power generation sector, which recorded a record 49.3 TWh, followed by networks with 13.1 TWh. Industry had the lowest consumption at 7.8 TWh (-13.5% compared to 2024). LNG had the largest share of imports (32.7 TWh), surpassing Russian gas (27.6 TWh). Exports in 2025 (8.6 TWh) tripled compared to those in 2024. More than 90% of exported gas was channeled through the same gate as Russian gas imports (Sidirokastro).

In November 2025, emissions from power plants reached 1.16 million tons, and the sector's carbon intensity was 250 g CO2/kWh, an improvement of 7.7% compared to October. However, in the first 11 months of 2025 total emissions reached 14.07 million tons, mainly due to high emissions from gas-fired power plants, which were the second highest since 2021 and accounted for 55.7% of total emissions for the period. Ag. Dimitrios was the top polluter with 2.3 million tons of CO2 for the 11-month period.

In an article as part of a special edition with ELIAMEP’s forecasts for 2026, published in Ta Nea, titled “Climate crisis heating up, climate policy in retreat”, Nikos Mantzaris, Chief Policy Analyst and co-founder of The Green Tank, examines one of the defining contradictions of our time: while the climate crisis is intensifying at an accelerating pace, climate policy at both European and national level is retreating dangerously.

In the first 11 months of 2025, we had record production from RES (24,595 GWh) and natural gas (20,864 GWh), record net exports (2,409 GWh), but also record RES curtailments, which reached 1,863 GWh and were more than double those of the same period in 2024 (886 GWh). In November specifically, RES ranked first in electricity production with 2,072 GWh, followed by gas with 1,778 GWh, while net exports doubled compared to October, reaching 477 GWh. The monthly average wholesale electricity price was 106.5 €/MWh.

The Green Tank submitted detailed comments and proposals on the “Long-term strategy for the renovation of the public and private building stock and its transformation into a carbon-free, highly energy-efficient building stock by 2050,” which was put out for public consultation in December 2025.

The tenth issue of The Green Tank’s newsletter has been published, covering developments over the past six months related to the Just Transition of lignite regions in Greece and across Europe (July–December 2025).

A recent Inside Story article, “Fish Farming and Environmental Destruction: The EU Builds While the Greek State Destroys”, highlights how the ARTEMIS Interreg Euro-MED project—implemented with the participation of The Green Tank and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR)—is carrying out pilot actions to restore the Posidonia seagrass meadow in the Atzikiari Bay in Crete. In this bay, where a fish farming facility previously operated, analysis of data collected and processed by the Seagrass Ecology Lab of the Institute of Oceanography at HCMR shows that 66% of the Posidonia meadow has been destroyed.

Nikos Mantzaris, Policy Analyst and co-founder at The Green Tank, was featured on Naftemporiki TV’s Index programme, hosted by Christina Kousouni and Michalis Mastorakis, in an in-depth discussion on high electricity prices and Greece’s energy policy choices.

1,747 energy communities, but only 18 new project applications in 6 months. Central Macedonia is the “champion” in electrified capacity, while in Western Macedonia for every 1 MW electrified, 3.6 MW are cancelled. The 1 GW “barrier” in self-generation was broken, however, from the ministerial decision on net billing (October 2024) to September 2025, only 16.5 MW of projects implementing the new mechanisms, were connected.

November 2025 saw the highest exports in the last two years (1.34 TWh), with over 90% exported through Sidirokastro. LNG ranked first in imports for November with 3.26 TWh (78% from Agia Triada). It also ranked first for the 11-month period with 28.4 TWh. Domestic gas consumption was 5.5 TWh for November and 62.5 TWh for the first 11 months of 2025, the second highest domestic gas consumption on record after that of 2021 for the same period.

Until recently, Greece was on track to achieve its CO₂ emissions reduction target of 55% by 2030, thanks to lignite phase-out and the rapid expansion of renewable energy. However, Nikos Mantzaris, energy policy analyst and co-founder of The Green Tank, warns that power sector emissions in 2025 are expected to reach 15 million tons, compared to the 10.2 million tons projected in the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).

Recent government announcements on hydrocarbon exploration in the Ionian Sea have been presented as a pathway to Greece’s energy autonomy. However, as Nikos Mantzaris, energy policy analyst and co-founder of The Green Tank, points out on Inside Story, the available evidence shows that this choice runs counter to both the country’s climate commitments and the public interest.