“The effects of climate change it is not ‘fake news’, but a harsh reality that we must face together. We must work together to reduce the effects. We need a ministry of national consensus and conciliation, but it will not be a ministry for the deaf. “
With this remark, the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection opened, Christos Stylianidisthe briefing he made, together with his Deputy Minister Evangelos Tournas, to its members Committee on the Environment of Parliamenton the axes of his ministry’s policy on dealing with the effects of the climate crisis.
Also characteristic was the image given by the ambassador of the European Climate Pact, Vanessa Archontidou, the alpinist who conquered the 7 highest peaks in the world, emphasizing that it is not a “science fiction movie”: “The “The human footprint is huge in the impending effects of climate change, such as ocean warming.” In Antarctica, which is the earth’s refrigerator, ice peels three times the size of Greece. “The danger of rising water levels is now visible, and the effects are not a science fiction movie, but it is in front of our door now, we see it with the heat and the fires”, said Ms. Archontidou.
Mr. Stylianidisassured the members of the Commission, that the country has been adequately prepared, with a series of new targeted measures to deal with the fires next summer.
According to what Mr. Stylianidis said:
– Until mid-June The body of 500 “forest commandos” will be ready, who will be trained in cooperation with the foresters but also with scientific support, will act throughout the year in a time of crisis.
– The air means will be increased firefighting.
According to the plan, they will be rented in total 93 aerial meansof which, 53 will be forest firefighting aircraft, 35 will be forest firefighting helicopters, there will be 3 air coordination helicopters and 1 personnel transport aircraft.
– They will be added to the staff of Civil Protection from next summer, 200 European firefighters with all their tools, from different countries, in the framework of a pilot program that will be implemented in the country and will be fully funded by the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
– Contacts and negotiations with European countries for the purchase of new modernized aircraft have already begun.
– The Euro-Mediterranean discussion is underway for the cooperation of countries in urgent need, such as Cyprus and Israel, with Greece having a broader important role, as it will be the helicopter station to help the countries in the region.
Referring in general to the actions and plans of his ministry for dealing with the climate crisis, Mr. Stylianidis spoke about three main directions, which are, “informing the citizens, the new modern technological tools for better and more practical efficiency and its utilization. specialized human resources, mainly of the Fire Brigade, which manages crises “.
«The climate crisis “and its effective treatment is a big bet for everyone”, said Mr. Stylianidis, while emphasizing the triangle “preventive preparation, readiness and resilience”.
“If there is no prevention“, As he stressed,” everything stays in the air […] Last year’s fires proved that wherever we fail, we find the problems in front of us. “Our very important goal is to connect this possibility of prevention with the forces of the Fire Brigade, in order to act effectively – otherwise the results will be meager”, he noted and added:
“With the aim of preventive preparation and resilience, the strengthening plan of the ministry has already started, we are in the final stage of consulting with the Ministry of Interior and in the coming days the final plan will be formed and the presidential decree will be issued.”
Mr. Stylianidis gave special emphasis to “Aigis” program for the strengthening and upgrading of Civil Protection, in the direction, as he said, “prevention, preparedness and resilience”, which will be financed through the resources of the Recovery Fund, the NSRF and the Investment Bank.
“It will enable the purchase of new, modern and technologically equipped aircraft – which have already been launched and are in the final phase of negotiation – as well as the strengthening of the logistical infrastructure of the Civil Protection with modern crisis management centers,” he noted.
He also spoke about a “big and very important ongoing project”, the “California Project”, which aims to set up a very modern crisis management body with good governance and in which the whole international community will participate, while There is cooperation between many Greek and foreign universities.
“There will be an international competition and the best response will be found, as it is considered that from the time of the announcement of a fire, if we manage to find the fire brigade in the first 10 minutes to 15 minutes, then the effects are reduced by 85%,” he said.
Mr. Stylianidis, particularly insisted on the “issue of scientific documentation”, because as he said “it is the basis of crisis management and this means that modernized radar systems are needed.”
“We need to increase the technological equipment of meteorologists at all costs, because where there is radar, big problems are avoided,” he said.
With black colors described the Greek bureaucracy Mr. Stylianidis explaining that “over 70% of the actions are funded by European programs – but the issue is how to speed them up and not stay in the Greek time-consuming bureaucratic procedures.
We managed to solve the problems with the bureaucracy of Brussels and we find them in front of us with the bureaucracy of Athens.
“The monster of the Greek bureaucracy is terrible and we must limit it, at least in terms of special cases that are unpredictable and urgent, such as the effects of the climate crisis.”
The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection also informed that:
– They are being launched standard training programs for certified volunteers, who will have their own role in times of crisis.
– Promoted the implementation of 13 new regional structures, through the “Aigis” program, which will be the backbone of Civil Protection.
Mr. Stylianidis called on all parties to participate in the national dialogue that began to draw up a national strategy for dealing with the climate crisis.
“We want you all in this effort, in which the ministry has only a coordinating role and the dialogue will not be pretentious. “We will ask you to nominate scientists to set up a committee of technocrats to monitor how we delimit the crisis.” “Another of our main goals is the clarification of responsibilities. “This ambiguity creates serious problems in crisis management,” he added.
He also spoke about the need to “create a national culture of volunteerism”, emphasizing that “in Greece it is imprinted but we need systematic organization and management of this potential staff, in order to include them in the operational plans for dealing with natural disasters.”
The large dispersion of forces, the irrational distribution of firefighting forces in the territory, the obsolescence of motorized equipment and the understaffing of services, are among the most important problems, as presented by the Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection. Evangelos Tournas.
As Mr. Tournas said, several buildings of the Fire Brigade present many problems, the housing needs of some are great, while at the same time, a very significant number of properties of the Fire Brigade remain unused.
He even pointed out that in order to cover these housing needs, cooperation has been started with the special PPP secretariat, for the creation of 7 new services and the negotiations are at a mature stage.
Mr. Tournas also emphasized that, “through the ‘Aegis’ program, the modernization of the vehicles of the Fire Service is planned”.
As he mentioned, out of the 3,500 vehicles owned by the Fire Brigade, 435 are over 30 years old, while 1500 are over 20 years old.
On the part of the opposition, in the call of Mr. Stylianidis for consensus and conciliation for the formulation of a national strategy, its deputies objected that “national dialogue does not mean communication games, opacity, waste of public and community resources, draft laws and voter recruitment “.
Responding to the persistent reports of the opposition MPs for opaque criteria in the recruitment of 500 forest rangers, Mr. Stylianidis spoke of a misunderstanding.
“There are no ‘our’ and ‘your’ children. The criteria will be objective. “Let’s go and set up a new body for Greece and not for ND, SYRIZA or KINAL that will help in the gap that exists”, said Mr. Stylianidis characteristically.
“All the criteria were precisely provided in the bill that was passed. They will come from the special forces, they will have previous service, we will take them from the reservoir of the seasonal ones, they will be trained in a short period of time to do the specialized work that will be assigned to them in cooperation with the forest services. Do not blame us and your children. There are the children of Greece, they will concern all the seasonals and through there the criteria will be the same for everyone. “The hiring of 500 forest rangers does not mean that we will abolish the 2,500 seasonal forest firefighters, whose positions we will maintain, as the demands increase during the summer months”, commented Mr. Tournas.
The Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis, at the same time stressed the great need to increase human resources, while he pointed out that “in this huge program ‘Aegis’, we are obliged to follow the EU directive because it is European money.”
“We can not escape, and whatever is done to implement the programs, will be with full transparency and approval of the EU,” he added.
“We are building the new design on our firefighters – and we will give them the knife to slaughter the bull,” Mr Tournas concluded.
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