Chr. Stylianidis: It is not fake news but the reality of the consequences of the climate crisis

“The effects of climate change are 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 that will not be a ministry. deaf “.

With this remark, the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Stylianidis, opened the briefing that he gave, together with his Deputy Minister Evangelos Tournas, to the members of the Environment Committee of the Parliament, on 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 Pact for Climate Change, 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. Stylianidis assured the members of the Committee 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:

– By 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.

– Aerial firefighting equipment will be increased.

According to the plan, a total of 93 aircraft will be leased, of 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.

– From next summer, 200 European firefighters with all their tools, from different countries, will be added to the Civil Protection staff, as part 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 response is a big bet for everyone,” said Mr. Stylianidis, while emphasizing the triangle “preventive preparation, readiness and resilience”.

“If there is no prevention,” he stressed, “everything remains a meteor […] 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 placed special emphasis on the “Aegis” 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, well-managed crisis management body, in which the entire 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.

Gloomy described the Greek bureaucracy Mr. Stylianidis explaining that “over 70% of the actions funded by European programs – but the question is how to speed up and not stick to Greek lengthy 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 reduce it, at least in terms of special cases that are unpredictable and urgent, such as the effects of the climate crisis.”

Still, the minister Climate Crisis and Civil Protection advised that:

– Routed standards volunteer training programs with certification, which will have their own role in the time of crisis.

– The implementation of 13 new regional structures is promoted, 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 technocrat committee to monitor how we will delineate the crisis,” he said. “Another of our main goals is to clarify 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 motor 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 reported, from 3,500 vehicles available to the Fire Brigade, the 435 is more than 30 years, and 1500 is 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 with practical and anti-national 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 is no ‘ours’ and ‘yours’ children. The criteria will be objective. We are going to set up a new body for Greece and not for ND, SYRIZA or KINAL that will help in the gap that exists,” he said. characteristically Mr. Stylianidis.

“All the criteria were precisely foreseen in the bill that was passed. They will come from the special forces, they will have previous service, we will take them from the seasonal tank, they will be trained in a short time to do the specialized work assigned to them in cooperation with the forest Do not categorize us and your children. There are the children of Greece, they will concern all the seasonal ones and through there the criteria will be the same for everyone. “forest firefighters, whose positions we will maintain, as the demands increase during the summer months”, commented on his part Mr. Tournas.

The Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis, while stressed the great need to increase human resources and noted that “in this huge project ‘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 EU approval,” 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.