Greek PM says local weather disaster is with us and value of ignoring it ‘unimaginable’

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ATHENS — Mediterranean nations should paved the way in addressing local weather change, the Greek prime minister stated, warning that the price of doing nothing was unimaginable, with mankind probably struggling to outlive past the flip of the subsequent century.

Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Spain had been ravaged by wildfires and file excessive temperatures this summer time, with scientists warning the area had became a “wildfire hotspot” . Germany, Turkey and China had been pounded with devastating floods.

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“I now not need to discuss local weather change. I need to discuss in regards to the local weather disaster, it’s already right here,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis instructed Reuters in an interview.

“And so as to tackle it, we want horizontal insurance policies which basically permeate each side of our financial and our social life.”

A U.N. local weather panel has warned that lethal warmth waves, large hurricanes and different freak climate occasions will solely turn into extra extreme.

Harvard-educated Mitsotakis, 53, has made local weather motion a focus of his administration. Quickly after his election in July 2019, he introduced a ban on coal-fired energy stations from 2028, and not too long ago created a civil safety ministry tasked with coping with crises.

Mitsotakis hosted leaders of 9 southern European nations, within the “entrance line” of local weather change, in Athens on Friday, once they referred to as for pressing world motion as a part of an “Athens declaration” initiated by Mitsotakis.

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The U.N. COP26 local weather convention in Glasgow beginning on Oct. 31 goals to wring way more bold local weather motion and the cash to go together with it from nations across the globe.

In a possible worst-case state of affairs, the local weather disaster would signify the “destruction of human civilization as we all know it,” Mitsotakis instructed Reuters.

“We’ve got to be very, very, very clear. That is precisely what’s at stake. If the worst-case situations materialize, this planet will not be going to be hospitable to the human species by the top of this century.

“Right here within the Mediterranean, now we have virtually 6,000 years of civilization behind us nevertheless it’s the responsibility of our technology to ensure that the long run generations will proceed to stay and thrive and prosper.”

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The World Meteorological Organisation, a U.N. company, has assessed the numbers of disasters pushed by local weather change have elevated fivefold over the previous 50 years, killing greater than 2 million folks and costing $3.64 trillion in complete losses.

The price of the disaster was “unimaginable” on a worldwide scale and even by way of nationwide economies, Mitsotakis stated.

Floods in Greece price half a billion euros final 12 months, and each crop ravaged by climate extremes might run into a whole bunch of thousands and thousands in damages, he stated. Coastal erosion from rising sea ranges was one other problem as a direct risk to tourism, an space of specific significance to Greece.

The nation had diminished its greenhouse gasses by 11 million tonnes since late 2019 by transferring away from coal, Mitsotakis stated. Greek authorities had been additionally transferring “at warp pace” to put flood boundaries in forests destroyed by fires this summer time.

Mitsotakis confronted criticism on the authorities’s response to the fires this summer time, which pressured hundreds to flee their properties. He apologized for any shortcomings.

“When confronted with fires of this depth, it is rather clear that we have to do issues otherwise,” he stated. “So we have to be taught from our errors.” (Modifying by Nick Macfie)