MissBlue Country Card 1 Greece

Athens, June 19^th 2013

At a time when Greece is facing a financial crisis infected finally all levels of the country.The increase ofthe unemployment upto 26% created also a social, economicaland political crisiswhile the gouvernment has shown anincapacity to solve the problem. We can observe a reduction of production and specially in an important domain like building activity which has done a drop down with hig consequences for the communities (-47% compared to March 2012). All these difficulties have of course an influence on the environmental management. The indicators show that until 2010 we observe a very light improvement of the indicators such as the emissions of greenhouse gases that follen by 16 points in 5 years (from 127 in 2005 to 111 in 2010). But, there is no doubt that Greece is facing an environmental crisis, with difficulties to reach the country’s targets. Concerning the energy, the part of renewable energy should be at 18% of the GDP by 2020, but it increased in five years only by 2% (7.2% 2005 and 2010 9.2%) coupled with the increase of the demand for water and energy, gives a lot of challenges for Greece.

However, let’s underline that Greece is among the European Countries with the stronger biodiversity and managed to protect it in some way. It is a country with a great potential to sustainable development. Innovative ideas are emerging (green products from Crete, Syros, Salonica but also green project for renewable energy and eco-tourism). Maybe when the financial system thatshould be supporting the market was starting to reallymakestronger these projects, the economycan find a path to reconciliate with growth.