English version|03.10.2019 10:41

Mitsotakis: The government is firmly committed to the "green" agenda

Newsroom

The government is firmly committed to the "green" agenda and demostrates it both at the level of declarations and actions, in Greece and abroad.

Following Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' speech in New York, where he made the ambitious commitment to phase out the lignite use, the cabinet took the decision to set up an Energy and Climate National Council with the primary objective of organizing, developing and monitoring the country's transition to the new "green" reality by 2030.

On Wednesday, the prime minister returned to the "green" agenda on the occasion of the founding ceremony of the new Mytilineos power station, a plant that would leave little environmental footprint, as he had the opportunity to point out.

An investment that is compatible with the three central government options:

- Replacement of lignite with milder forms of production

- Liberalization of the energy market (a move that, according to the government, will create jobs and reduce electricity prices)

- Limiting the economic "bleeding" caused by the import of electricity from neighboring countries.

Mitsotakis government's strategy is to phase out lignite units by 2028, a highly ambitious target for a lignite-producing country, the prime minister noted while comparing his own plan with that of Germany in 2038. "But we are much more ambitious," he said.

The transition to this new era will proceed on the basis of PPC's plan on triptych, company finances - employee protection - environmental protection, but with special care for areas that are still today dependent on lignite: Western Macedonia and Megalopolis. With countervailing benefits and environmental protection.

Mitsotakis set the goal of making these areas a pole of investment, with practical support from the EU in know-how and resources.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis