Tremendous success: Poros to be the new GR-eco Island at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai
December 07, 2023
The announcement by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that Poros will
become the next “green island” of our country within the framework of the
pioneering GR-Eco Islands project marks a historic development for the
island’s future.
The decision was announced in Dubai in the context of Greece's first
participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), and
it was the most significant decision made by the Prime Minister during the
opening of the Greek pavilion on Friday 1 December 2023. The
announcement was accompanied by the signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Environment & Energy and the
UAE’s renewable energy company Masdar, for the transformation of Poros
into a new GR-Eco Island, in the presence of Mr. Mitsotakis, the President of
the Conference and UAE's Special Envoy for Climate Change Sultan Al Jaber,
the Mayor of Poros Ioannis Dimitriadis and other officials and businessmen of
the two countries.
The GR-Eco Islands project, which has been implemented so far in Astypalaia
and Halki, includes flagship energy interventions in infrastructure and services
in the areas of waste management, water management, culture, information
technology, communications and transport in the country’s small islands.
The progress that the island has shown in recent years in the aforementioned
areas, as well as the exemplary cooperation over the past year between the
island's municipal administration and the Ministry of Environment & Energy in
documenting the selection and the planning of the project were decisive for
choosing Poros, among dozens of small islands, to become the new GR-Eco
Island. The significance of selecting Poros is even greater considering that
one of the critical selection criteria previously announced was related to the
inability of the candidate islands to be connected to the mainland energy
system (which does not apply in the case of Poros), and that Poros was not
included in the list of small and remote islands in the country previously
announced as candidates for the program.
After the signing of the MoU., the Mayor of Poros Ioannis Dimitriadis
stated:
“Today, the most important development in the history of our island is being
officially established. Poros is at the heart of our country’s environmental
policy and at the center of world news. This is the culmination of many months
of confidential cooperation between our municipal administration and the
leadership of the Ministry of Environment and it marks the recognition of all
the significant work that we did in Poros over the past few years. I would like
to thank Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Deputy Minister of
Environment Mrs. Alexandra Sdoukou, the associate of the Prime Minister Mr.
Christos Zografos and the sponsoring company Masdar for showing us their
trust and for recognizing the potential of our island, which is given this unique
opportunity to be the environmental model of our country. More details about
the content and the importance of the project will be published soon”..
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