Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, participated in the critical discussions on climate change at the UN COP27 summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on Tuesday.
Mitsotakis also took part in the high-level presentation, “Coordinating Climate Change Actions in the Eastern Mediterranean & Middle East,” of the Cyprus and Egypt Initiative together with President of Egypt Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.
The initiative includes six mutually supporting pillars of actions. The aim of the initiative is the drawing up of a regional action plan to address climate change by countries in the region. The plan will be based on six pillars. The initiative was established following the 1st International Conference, “Climate Change in the Mediterranean and the Middle East: Challenges & Solutions,” organized by the Cyprus Institute in 2018 in Nicosia.
In his speech at COP27, the Greek PM underlined the importance of regional cooperation and coordination in addressing climate change in the eastern Mediterranean. There is an emphasis on electricity interconnections and natural disaster management.
The PM of Greece notes that there is “a need to further cooperate in terms of energy interconnection. This is a matter of paramount importance to us.”
“Of course we are looking, with President Sisi, to develop a new, important interconnection between Greece and Egypt,” he said, “so that we are able to transfer cheap energy from renewable sources—produced in this part of the world—not only to Greece but also in the European markets that are looking for cheaper energy.”
Συμμετείχα σήμερα στην εκδήλωση υψηλού επιπέδου για την Πρωτοβουλία της Κύπρου και της Αιγύπτου «Coordinating Climate Change Actions in the Eastern Mediterranean & Middle East», με τον Πρόεδρο της Αιγύπτου @AlsisiOfficial και τον Πρόεδρο της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας @AnastasiadesCY. pic.twitter.com/rhiWzPcjXi
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) November 8, 2022
Need to expand transnational cooperation
Referring to the challenges caused by climate change in the field of civil protection, Mitsotakis emphasized the need to expand transnational cooperation.
“We all face catastrophic weather events,” he said. “Some of us deal with wildfires more often, others may deal with floods more. And it is relatively easy and efficient to work together in terms of sharing civil protection resources.”
“For example, in the wildfires we experienced this summer—fortunately they were much less destructive than the wildfires of the previous summer—Jordan reacted very quickly and sent us a helicopter,” said Mitsotakis.
“We did the same with Israel and vice versa,” he said in front of world leaders at COP27. “I would therefore encourage the group to consider the possibility of closer cooperation in the field of civil protection.”
“We are doing this at the level of the European Union and I think it would be a very good message for the European RescEU mechanism to ally with countries in the region so that there are more resources to be shared [and] so that we can respond to events that we know will be all [the] more likely,” added the Prime Minister.
The European Commission upgraded the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and created rescEU to protect citizens from disasters and manage emerging risks. It is fully financed by the EU and includes a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters, medical evacuation planes, and a stockpile of medical items and field hospitals that can respond to health emergencies across Europe. The rescEU reserve also includes mobile shelters for those displaced.
Mitsotakis talks Greece-USA cooperation at COP27
Kyriakos Mitsotakis met and talked with Special Envoy of the U.S. President for Climate John Kerry.
During the meeting, the cooperation between Greece and the United States in dealing with climate change and achieving the goal of zero emissions by 2050 was discussed.
The Greek PM informed Kerry about the preparation of the international conference, “Our Ocean Conference,” which will take place in 2024 in Greece. The two also discussed Greece’s support for the “Green Shipping Challenge” initiative of the U.S. and Norway.
Furthermore, Mitsotakis welcomed U.S. initiatives to reduce shipping’s energy footprint, emphasizing the pivotal role of Greek-owned shipping for the success of developing sustainable solutions in the sector.
The “Green Shipping Challenge” initiative, announced at COP27, aims to encourage governments, ports, and shipping companies to take concrete steps in decarbonizing the shipping sector by 2050.
Mitsotakis also informed Kerry about Greece’s initiatives regarding the diversification of energy sources and routes. They also spoke about the transformation of Greece into an energy transfer hub that would connect Africa and the eastern Mediterranean with eastern Europe.
Με τον Ειδικό Απεσταλμένο του Προέδρου των ΗΠΑ για το Κλίμα @JohnKerry συζητήσαμε για τη συνεργασία Ελλάδας-ΗΠΑ σε θέματα αντιμετώπισης της κλιματικής αλλαγής, αλλά και για την επίτευξη του στόχου περί μηδενικού ισοζυγίου εκπομπών έως το 2050. #COP27 pic.twitter.com/PR6DSP7B4v
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) November 8, 2022
Discussions on safe access to water
As part of the critical discussions of the COP27 summit, the Greek PM co-chaired, along with President of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union Macky Sall, the high-level round table on safe access to water.
In his remarks, Mitsotakis underscored that limited access to clean water and droughts are inextricably linked to climate change and affect a large part of the world’s population. He added that these phenomena affect the entirety of the Mediterranean.
He further emphasized that droughts are a multi-layered challenge that contribute to migratory flows and population movements and highlighted the need to implement partnerships and joint initiatives for effective water resource management.
”Greece is a pioneer in renewable energy”
The transition to clean energy is both an opportunity and a strategic necessity, stressed Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He also noted that energy transition will help Greece to change its economic model, as it has been an energy importer for decades with consequences for its competitiveness. “This is now changing,” he pointed out.
He added that the future of Greece’s competitiveness “will be based on abundant wind and solar resources. Greece is already a pioneer in terms of Renewable Energy Sources. Almost half of our electricity today comes from wind, solar and water.”
“We have an installed capacity of wind and solar energy in excess of 10 GW,” he said. “And we are among the top ten countries in…global ranking for wind and solar energy penetration.”
At the same time, Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that Greece “should continue to support [its] citizens in order to face the consequences of the serious crisis related to the cost of living.”
Furthermore, he pointed out that carbon consumption has declined in Greece.
“Meanwhile, carbon consumption has fallen by nearly 80 percent in less than ten years,” he pointed out. “The energy we consume today emits 30 percent less carbon dioxide than in 2005.”
Mitsotakis made it clear that this is only the beginning and referred to the first climate law that has been passed. He said that Greece aims to achieve “zero carbon balance by 2050.”
The law, which was approved on May 26th by the Hellenic Parliament, will set quantitative targets for the reduction of greenhouse emissions by fifty-five percent in 2030 compared to 1990, and by eighty percent in 2040. Greece aims for climate neutrality by 2050, which has been set as the EU target.
Η μελλοντική μας ανταγωνιστικότητα θα βασίζεται στους άφθονους αιολικούς και ηλιακούς πόρους. Η Ελλάδα είναι ήδη πρωτοπόρος σε ό,τι αφορά τις Ανανεώσιμες Πηγές Ενέργειας. Σχεδόν το ήμισυ της ηλεκτρικής μας ενέργειας προέρχεται σήμερα από τον άνεμο, τον ήλιο και το νερό. #COP27 pic.twitter.com/fz87vqM16n
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) November 8, 2022
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