Interview at Bloomberg from Baku, where he is for the work of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change (COP29), the prime minister gave Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

We all understand that changes to address the climate crisis must be accelerated, said Mr. Mitsotakis, noting that such meetings have a recurring pattern of ambitious goals that are not met.

The climate crisis is here and especially in the Mediterranean, the Prime Minister stressed and pointed out the need for Europe to offer more cooperation and funding to deal with the consequences in the countries most affected.

For Greece, he said we have realized the necessity of changes due to the climatic disasters we have had, while he also referred to the recent floods in Spain.

“So we should focus on the long-term mitigation of these difficulties and of course help our people to cope with climate disasters. So that’s why it needs funding. In other words, we are not going to help only poor countries to deal with climate change, but also more mature economies to deal with the consequences.”

When asked if he would seek a change in the policy in Greece regarding the fires, he answered: “Yes of course. This also depends on Europe. Europe has already decided to reduce energy consumption and especially energy production from fossil fuels and replace them with RES by 12% and we will follow.

There are also losses of life. For us this counts more than anything, that’s why we want measures to be taken to use our water resources more. Because for us climate change is here and that is why I would like to make sure that Europe offers more cooperation and more resources to the countries that are at the forefront of climate change.

Regarding the possibility of a change of attitude by the US, he noted: “In principle, I hope that we will not see a repeat of the withdrawal of the US from the Paris agreement. Why the USA represents much more than Europe in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases, we only represent 6% we cannot achieve this alone.

So there is US national policy but also a clean technology that the US has and hopefully they will provide us with many innovative solutions to deal with climate change.

The prime minister was also asked about the phone call he had with Donald Trump: “I have a lot of experience in leadership, and so does President Trump. We had a frank exchange of views. I have a good relationship with President Trump and I hope that relationship continues. We emphasized during this phone call the need to work very hard to maintain this strategic advantage that we have and I hope that Europe will follow.”

The time has come to move from words to action so that we become more competitive in Europe. If you will, we were in line even before President Trump took office.

Asked if Europe would have to retaliate if a trade war with the US started, he replied: “I don’t think so. I believe in free trade. And we have already started the LNG procurement processes from the US. So I think the US will help us. There are ways to talk with the US leadership, with the US government. I believe in dialogue, I believe there is a great opportunity, but we should continue to work in this direction.”

He emphasized that in any case it is necessary “to aim more at Europe’s competitiveness, Europe seems to have realized this. And I am cautiously optimistic that we will succeed.”

For her Greek economy said that it has maintained a growth rate for 5-6 years and estimated that the country will remain financially stable.

“Greece is currently growing rapidly and I am very optimistic about the Greek economy both in the long and short term. Our government is stable. We will continue to attract investments in Greece in both tourism and innovative sectors. We are attracting the interest of the international community and I believe we will continue to deliver. My main goal is to converge with Europe quickly, to fill the gap that has been created in recent years. And that is my first priority.”