The prime minister announced the creation of two large national marine parks, one in the Aegean and one in the Ionian Kyriakos Mitsotakisin his speech at 9th international conference “Our Ocean Conference”.

The Prime Minister stated that Greece is a pioneer in Europe in terms of renewable energy sources and announced four additional actions for the seas.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ speech in more detail:

Excellencies, dear colleagues, Your Holiness, Your Beatitudes, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to Athens for the 9th “Our Ocean Conference”.

Oceanus was the son of Earth and Uranus, one of the Titans who preceded the Olympian Gods. Our love for the sea runs in our veins, it has shaped our history and culture, and today it continues to support us, nourish us and give us great joy.

However, this joy is tempered by the double crisis we face today. This Conference meets at the intersection of two crises. The first, the climate crisis, changes our planet every day. Here in Greece, we see this with the passing of the seasons, year after year, with rising temperatures, with increasingly destructive fires and devastating floods.

The other crisis is that of our Ocean. The ocean has absorbed carbon dioxide and excess heat, and we are now seeing dramatic changes in sea ice extent, sea temperature, and the overall health of marine ecosystems.

Just this week scientists announced the fourth global mass bleaching event, where corals are stressed and turn white because the water they live in is too warm. Our Ocean is literally sending us distress signals.

And of course, long before we understood climate change, the ocean was already threatened by overexploitation and pollution. It was for many years the destination – actually the dumping ground – for our farms and factories. For the people who take a trip to the beach, for the cities and their waste, for the ships that cross the ocean to deliver the goods we need.

The ocean has paid a heavy price in serving humanity. It has been a critical source of life and livelihood. We have not treated him well in return.

So we meet today with a new sense of urgency. Our world is changing faster than our ability to adapt to change. This creates enormous pressures – political, economic, physical and social. No one can plan anything without taking the climate crisis into account.

The long-term solution is very clear: achieve a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades. Greece is doing its part. Our emissions have fallen by 43% since 2005 – this is the largest percentage reduction in the European Union. Electricity generation from coal has fallen by almost 90%.

Greece is a pioneer in renewable energy sources, ranking fourth in the EU in terms of penetration of wind and solar energy into the energy mix. And we will continue to be pioneers, especially in new areas such as offshore wind.

However, no matter how fast we reduce emissions, we cannot escape the climate crisis. Last year, Greece experienced the longest heat wave ever recorded. This was followed by a mega forest fire in northeastern Greece, in the area of ​​Evros, and then unprecedented floods from the storm “Daniel”. All this happened in the space of a few weeks. The frequency and severity of extreme weather events is increasing.

Therefore, as we build the low-carbon society of the future, we must also strengthen the society of the present. We need to invest in cost-effective resilience and civil protection, and we need to put more resources into helping people recover. We must build, and rebuild, for the climate of the future.

But mitigation and adaptation are not enough. We must also focus on protection and restoration, protecting land and sea from harmful human activity and giving nature space to heal. And nature can heal itself, as we saw during Covid when a pause in fishing helped revive fish stocks at impressive rates.

Economic activity and nature protection can and should go hand in hand. And this protection is not only a scientific, but also a spiritual and moral imperative, which is demonstrated by the presence here of His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Thank you for being here. Thank you for leading the way and speaking out about the climate crisis, long before many of us realized the challenges we would face.

We must ensure continuity in our efforts. That is why I am proud to announce that private philanthropic foundations, led by the Bloomberg Ocean Fund, have agreed to help fund a secretariat that will support international conferences in the future, starting with the next host, South Korea, through monitoring of existing commitments and their implementation.

Here in Greece we have adopted by law the goal of protecting at least 30% of land and sea by 2030. Greece was also the first EU country to recognize ‘Key Biodiversity Areas’ in its national legislation.

We have established a special protection regime to prohibit the construction of new roads and other artificial surfaces in nine iconic mountain areas. This is an initiative we called “Unclaimed Mountains”.

We have extended the same logic to the sea, designating over 200 beaches in marine protected areas where we prevent all commercial exploitation. Some areas should remain untouched and completely unaffected by mass tourism.

At this Conference we have expanded our commitments, let me highlight four of the most important:

-We will create two additional large marine national parks, one in the Ionian and one in the Aegean, increasing the size of our marine protected areas by 80% and covering approximately 1/3 of our territorial marine waters.

-We will ban trawling in our national marine parks by 2026 and in all marine protected areas by 2030.

-We will create a state-of-the-art surveillance system, with drones, satellites and artificial intelligence, to effectively patrol these areas by 2026.

-And we will remove plastic waste in the waters by 50% and microplastics by 30% by 2030 compared to 2019.

In total, during its preparation for this Conference, Greece has identified 21 actions, with secured funding of 780 million euros, contributing significantly, I believe, to the health of our Ocean in the future.

We are also pleased to announce the launch of an important initiative: a dedicated Decarbonization Fund for our islands, funded by the allowances of the European Emissions Trading System.

This Fund, whose resources could eventually reach €2 billion, depending on the price of the carbon right, is to finance the connection of our islands to the mainland grid, energy storage and renewable energy sources, including offshore wind energy. It will contribute to the construction of multipurpose water tanks. On its “endless blue”, “Greek Polynesia” must and will become greener.

Ladies and gentlemen, Greece has chosen to host the 9th “Our Ocean Conference” in order to act as a catalyst for action. We are encouraged by the pledges made during this gathering: over 400 pledges, exceeding $10 billion in value.

These announcements, and the presence of so many of you here today, show that we have the political will to act. Only if we work together, governments, business and civil society, true to the spirit of equality and solidarity, can we face this global challenge.

I hope that we will look back on the 9th “Our Ocean Conference” as a turning point in the long journey of protecting our Ocean. It is only through our actions that we can say we have truly made our mark, helping our Ocean reach its full potential.

Thank you again for coming to Athens.