Dealing with climate in Southeast Europe and beyond

Experts and policymakers discussed new opportunities in dealing with climate change in the context of the world economic downturn during an international conference on The Road to Copenhagen: Managing Climate Change and Energy Security in Southeast Europe and beyond in Athens on May 12-13. In the second Athens Summit event of its kind, the conference president, Andreas Papandreou, chairman and founder of the Institute for Climate and Energy Security, said in his opening speech that the 21st century could be described as the century of de-carbonisation, noting that the climate crisis is more important and will last longer than the economic recession.

 Greek President Karolos Papoulias said that we need to work hard to achieve an environmental democracy. “I consider the term of an ecological democracy interconnected with the struggles for a basic quality of life. I believe that, when this term becomes part of our political vocabulary, most people would become even more motivated. The social mobilisation will bring political action and pressure in every form of authority to do its duty, interfere and change the laws if needed,” Papoulias said.

For countries of Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean, a major challenge is to implement energy strategies that meet global sustainability goals but also reflect home conditions. The participants discussed ways of guaranteeing energy supplies; and for local delivery efficiencies, investment, and a rapid shift to a regional low-carbon economy.

On the United Nations climate change conference taking place in Copenhagen in December, George Papandreou, president of the main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) said the main issue will be to promote good governance of the planet, which will allow the voices of all participating states to be heard. “Greece can play an important role as regards cooperation with the SE European countries and the Mediterranean region through ‘green’ diplomacy,” he said.

George Papandreou stressed that “green” development should be promoted as a means of making the planet viable while improving living standards for the people, adding that the conventional energy reserves will soon be depleted, leading eventually to new conflicts. In contrast to his hard-hitting political George rhetoric, Papandreou, soft-spoken noted that Greece will have to promote all necessary measures to increase green investments. He said Greece was lagging behind in terms of infrastructure for green development. He called for a turn toward quality products and the use of new technologies in all sectors, underlining the importance of investing in human resources through education.

He also noted that countries like Greece have huge potential as regards the development of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), such as wind power or geothermal energy, due to their geomorphology and climate, while he underlined the importance of decentralisation through regional and local development. Meanwhile, Joanna Lewis from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service predicted that in the UN Copenhagen conference it is highly unlikely that the United States will commit further than what US President Barack Obama has so far accepted, which is a reduction of emissions by 16-17 percent compared to today’s percentages or 15 percent in 2005. She also noted that in Copenhagen there must be an intermediate agreement with a specter of targets that will concern the developed countries.