A new approach to the city’s issues related to the climate crisis is proposed by Haris Doukas, so that Athens can meet the high demands imposed by the extreme phenomena of the time, as the newly elected mayor of Athens stated at the Economist conference. where he participated as a speaker in the section “The Cities of the Future” and how they can face the new challenges.

Mr. Doukas also referred to energy problem and the energy poverty of many of the city’s residents, he analyzed his positions and at the end emphasized that Athens can succeed if it moves forward with major innovations.

Initially, the new mayor of Athens referred extensively to climate crisis, in climate deregulation and in how the last period, with Daniel and Ianos, affected Greece and Athens in particular. Immediately afterwards he said:

“An additional problem for the Mediterranean, Greece and Athens is the fires, which are due to extreme weather events, such as very long droughts and very hot temperatures, and have already burned 23% of the lung that exists around Athens . And of course the models show that temperature extremes will increase sevenfold in the coming years with heatwave conditions tripling by 2030. So we have to learn to live in harsh conditions, that’s resilience, and of course do what we can to not the situation completely escapes and this is mitigation”.

And he continued:

“In Athens, one of its characteristics is that while there were rivers, tributaries, streams, 90% are now blocked, that is, they do not exist. In fact, for most of these cases we don’t know what their adequacy is, if new flood protection works are needed, we don’t know about the existing networks what their condition is. In many cases there are sewage and stormwater networks together. That is why even in conditions of a much lower degree of intensity, as it was recently, when Daniel came very low in Athens, we saw images of people being caught by poles in Vasilissis Sofias, so that they would not be swept away by the stream in the center of Athens.

This shows that we urgently need a new approach to these issues, where green will be central, but on different terms. Green is no longer a lifestyle, it is not simply to enhance the quality of life, it is survival. In other words, we need to strengthen the greenery with solid green spaces, not small point projects, pocket parks and the like. To go from 11% green space, which is very low, to 30% which is the European average, starting with 25,000 new trees, 5,000 new trees a year, not just to increase air quality, to enhance oxygen, to not to have 3,000 deaths, which the studies say are related to pollution in Athens, but also to create natural sponges to deal with, not the extreme phenomena, but the classic phenomena of rain, which at the moment we have great difficulty.

A typical example is Elaionas, where we could, for example, immediately plant 3,000 trees, to replace the great destruction that has been created in Parnitha and other mountains that have burned and of course immediately create a sponge and corresponding gutters, to we can decongest the situation. Mountain hydronomy, hills, mountains and “15 minutes to town”. What is “15 minutes city” to include it with the green? It has the following approach, that when opening the window you should see 3 trees, your neighborhood should have close to 30% shading from green and at 300 meters you should have a green park. This is the rule of 3-30-300, a general rule of survival and life for Europe and I want it to be for Athens as well and it gives a new sense of locality, how degraded neighborhoods and devalued everyday life take another turn”.

Regarding energy, Mr. Doukas said, among other things: “The problem of energy poverty is very intense and we also experienced it last winter with the energy war. But if you put it together with the housing crisis and the rents, it means that a very large part of the income, close to 60%, goes to just the basics of life and energy, when the average is 37% in Europe. So, Heat or Eat, which is a dilemma that also enters the European level, is emblematic here. There are many of our fellow citizens who have to choose where to give their money to meet basic needs. That is why we say that a key element in our new policy for Athens is to utilize the renewable energy communities with the networks and to enable, with virtual energy compensation, the Municipality to distribute clean electricity to 50,000 vulnerable households, the ones that are currently on the social tariff, which means that every year they struggle to get a heating allowance to make ends meet and are locked in a difficult situation. And to give them the possibility to enter an energy community and get electricity at a very low price, for another life perspective in the next 25 years, as long as the lifetime of a photovoltaic park for example”.

And in closing he added: “Cities can do very important things and I think Athens can do it, if we stop making excuses and if we move forward with very big innovations. Technology exists, which we will put in and inclusion, social transformations, in order to succeed”.

To a question received from the moderator of the panel, regarding the fact that he does not belong to the same party as the government and if this is a problem, Mr. Doukas replied: “I have a mandate, to help all citizens and problems have no colors and commas. So it is very important to work in collaboration with the government, with the relevant ministers, with the Region, to solve the problems. We all want the Self-Government to be independent and that’s why we fight, at least that’s what I’m fighting for, so that it is autonomous, independent and strong and not entangled with government issues. On the contrary, all the agencies should cooperate so that the problems can be solved”.

At this point, he also wanted to refer to recycling, saying:

“Things may have been going in the wrong direction for years now. It has been 40 years since there has been environmental education on recycling issues. And for more than 40 years, a lot of money has been given, European and national, and very low rates are locked in, close to 4 to 5% in Athens for recycling, when at the same time we pay three times for recycling as citizens. We pay the recycling fee once for the products, a second time for the recycling services and a third time for the landfill fines, because in the end we do not recycle, except a small percentage.

So this shows that beyond parties and colors, we must seriously work in collaboration with the private sector as well as with citizens, to help ensure that money is not wasted.

And let me give an example. There is no brown bin in Athens, it exists in a very low percentage. Brown bin means food, which is close to 40% of waste in Athens. If we had a 100% brown bin and thus utilized this flow, we would greatly reduce the loading on the other bins and the Municipality of Athens would save, just from this story, close to 2.5 but depending on the percentage we would reach it might also 4 to 5 million euros a year, which could reduce the municipal fees a lot, because Athens has expensive municipal fees. I put this dimension in the economic and not only the environmental dimension, to show that low recycling, in addition to the environmental one, also has an important economic effect, which hurts us”.

Christian Kelin, president of Henley & Partners, also participated in the panel of this section, who referred to the characteristics that Athens has as a city and explained why they are interesting, but also to the climate of the region, which he considers excellent and emphasized that in the future they will help the city attract investors who can bring about economic growth.

For her part, Eleni Belsi, a member of the European Confederation of Recycling Companies (EuRIC), emphasized that Greece is behind in waste management and that the country has set high goals.