Athens Mayor-elect Doukas proposes more green for climate crisis, green energy for vulnerable households

Athens Mayor-elect Haris Doukas put forth a series of ideas about building the city’s resilience against the impact of the climate crisis, speaking on Wednesday at the ‘Cities of the Future’ panel of the 27th Annual Economist Government Roundtable in Athens.

Referring to wildfires as a major problem for the Mediterranean, the entire country and also Athens, Doukas noted that fires have burnt 23% of the green around the city. These fires, he added, are mostly caused by extreme weather phenomena, while the occurence of heatwaves is foreseen to triple by 2030.

Moreover, 90% of the city’s rivers, tributaries and streams have been filled in with earth or concrete. It is unkown if most of the filler works are adequate or need rebuilding, and whether new anti-flood works are needed, while in many cases water and sewage networks have combined pipelines.

When the recent storm ‘Daniel’ hit Athens, “we saw images of people on Vassilissis Sofias Avenue, in the city center, holding on to signposts so as to not get carried away by torential waters,” Doukas noted.

Therefore, the city’s compact green surface area needs to go up from the current 11% to 30%, which is the European average, noted the mayor-elect, “starting with [planting] 25,000 new trees, then another 5,000 on an annual basis,” to create natural drainage areas for regular rainwater.

Mentioning the 3-30-300 Rule, Doukas reiterated its basic premise: that every time an Athenian looks out of their window at home, they should be able to see at least 3 trees, each neighborhood should provide nearly 30% of shading by trees, and the house should be 300 meters away from a green park.

Another issue that Doukas emphasized is the so-called ‘energy poverty’ phenomenon, which was particularly evident in the previous winter with the energy war. If one combines this with the housing crisis and high rents, nearly 60% of monthly wages are spent just for basic living and energy costs, compared to a European average of 37%, said the mayor-elect.

What Doukas proposed is for the City of Athens to take advantage of renewable energy communities via the power networks. The municipality will then use virtual energy offsets to distribute clean electric energy to 50,000 vulnerable households. These households can eventually become part of an energy community that supplies them with cheap power for the next 25 years, he underlined.

(Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) is a Communication Supporter of the 27th Annual Economist Government Roundtable. Video statements of participants can be viewed at https://www.amna.gr/video-services/544358/Corporate%20Videos and at https://we.tl/SG16Qml4bD.)